Seas of Fortune Reprise
by Astherfeld Cryomorph
Summary: A sequel to Seas of Fortune (duh); this time, the admiral had to face the hardships of integrating three newly-transferred ships into her everlastingly energetic navy. Some of them were doubtful, some of them hurt, yet all of them wanted to fulfill their duties as a shipgirl of the motherland. Rated T for crude language and mild sexual innuendo.
1. Prologue: A Midsummer Day's Holiday

Summer.

The season of the sweltering temperature and annoyingly active insects. Seeing how the day just begun as the sun is barely on its highest spot in the sky, the end of such agony is yet to be within sight.

Yet summer had its own charm if one is to disregard the atmospheric temperature. Thanks to the heat, floras such as the sunflowers are having the time of their lives as they bask in the sun while constantly staring at it like they're praising the sun.

However, that's not, by far the only charm.

Upon one corner of land lies a naval base, and some distance away from the port the base is attached to, lies a very cheerful beach. Laughter and giggles resounded from the beach as several girls, each equipped with alluring swimwear approached it from the direction of a structure in the port.

"Well then, under the Admiral's order, we are to have fun to our heart's extent as of today!"

A woman who's in front of the group suddenly twirled around and said thus. Her long, flawless black hair flowed and made a glittering arc.

Her words were greeted by a cheerful exclaim from the rest of the group as they immediately dispersed.

Some went straight for the shallow waters with their cute floats, some went even further to the deep waters; some bringing snorkels, and some weren't, while the few of them headed for an open spot on the beach to drop their luggage and set up a camp; stabbing oversized umbrellas and laying down mats for the girls to rest on.

Ooyodo, the black-haired shipgirl from earlier, was one of those who set up the mats and plopped her cute butt on it.

She sighed in relief, "finally, a holiday!" she exclaimed, stretching her exposed, finely toned arms.

"You've been working hard recently, haven't you Ooyodo?" as she finished stretching her arms, a colleague approached her and set up her mat on the other side of the parasol before sitting on it.

"You bet I did!" Ooyodo replied while leaning back with one arm supporting her while the other wiped the beads of sweat building up on her forehead. "The admiral made quite a ruckus with her sudden decision of getting married, so I've got to help her with paperwork and everything."

"I feel you." Said her friend with a light chuckle.

"How about you, Akashi-san? Don't you have to deal with the sudden rush of orders to make rings again?"

"I do," Her friend Akashi's pink locks danced on her forehead as a gust of wind blew by gently. The human repair ship twisted her joints one by one in a form of stretching, seemingly because she was about to swim as well. "But I feel like it's worth it, you know? Those rings might be given to us eventually, so I kinda get excited every time I make one."

"I don't know how it feels since I'm not the one burdened by it, but I feel like I understand what you mean."

The sweltering weather was beating through the atmosphere even though the two of them were protected by the parasol, so their bodies gradually became sweatier as time passes. Feeling slightly bothered by how her swimwear clings uncomfortably against her sufficient breasts, Ooyodo pulled the string that connected two cloths that protected her bosom in the middle of her chest to adjust her bosom in her sky blue and yellow bikini. As she did, it seemed like Akashi had finished her stretching.

"Not going to swim?"

"Nope. I've been meaning to read a book, so I'll be fine here."

"Rog'. I'm off then!"

Akashi stood up and quickly dashed away to where the rest were.

Some distance away, the other girls were busy cooling themselves off by splashing seawater onto each other or simply submerged themselves in the deeper part of the sea. From her place, Ooyodo saw Akashi approaching a group of destroyer girls playing with their beach ball and asked to join in.

"But speaking of the admiral…where _is_ she?" she looked back towards the direction of the port, but suddenly, her phone sounds as it received a notification. She quickly picked her phone from her small purse next to her and read the contents. "…from the Navy HQ?"

* * *

Back in the port, approximately five minutes later.

The admiral's office is encompassed mostly by silence despite there being two people inside; nothing but a faint sound of ragged breathing could be heard from the widely spacious room.

"Houshou-san…can I put it in now?"

One is, obviously, the commander of the naval base, Ashikaga Ayumi. With the prime age of 25, her feminine back shoulders the responsibility of taking care of the entire naval base, in addition to her unnecessarily abundant racks. As the commanding officer of the navy, she was the only one wearing a bright white, pocketed military uniform; a short sleeved one to match the atmospheric temperature at this time of the year.

"N…no…you have to make it wet first…that way it'll go in easily."

The next person is Houshou, an aircraft carrier shipgirl who is helping out the admiral as her secretary. The sleeves of her apricot-colored hakama were tied up to her shoulders, and her usual ponytail decorated by a strange hair stick allowed her to bear the heat that beats into the room from the window frame nearby.

She was also the one the admiral had set her heart to, just several months prior.

"Ah, Houshou-san…!"

Suddenly the woman usually nicknamed the mothership opened her mouth and captured the admiral's _thing_ with her mouth.

"Mmh…there. Don't you think it's wet enough?" but soon enough, Houshou pulled out the _thing_ from inside her mouth. The trace of saliva from her wife's seductive mouth was left on the _thing_ the admiral held on her hand.

"Y…yeah..." Feeling her significant other's hot breath due to their closeness to each other, the admiral was entranced; her face, until up to the tips of her ears poking out from between her flawless locks, were blazing red like a steamed lobster. "I'm…putting it in…I can put it in now, right?"

The impatience in her tone caused the mothership to chuckle gently. "Don't be impatient, miss admiral…I'm not going anywhere," she said seductively before letting out another giggle. "Fufu, but I don't hate miss admiral's eager face…you're so cute."

"I…I'm not used to be called cute…" the admiral turned her eyes away in embarrassment. "B-besides, didn't you promise you will call me by my name when we're alone…?"

"Aww, come on now, don't turn your face away…it's over here…!" Seeing how the admiral turned her gaze somewhere else while doing something important to both of them, Houshou gently reached her slender fingers on the admiral's chin and guided her face to look to where she needs to focus, before finally…she inched her lovely lips closer to the admiral's red ears and whispered; "go ahead… _put it in, Ayumi-san_."

From the unexpected stimulation, the admiral pushed her _thing_ with a jerk, "I missed…!", cried the admiral, but the mothership only felt the mistake emphasizes her loved one's cuteness, and she chuckled.

"Fufu, let me guide you then…" the fingers that were locked onto the admiral's chin slowly slid down toward the admiral's arm that were holding her _thing_ , cautiously caressing the admiral's body on the way there. "Here we go, you can put it in again… _go slowly this time_." She turned back to a whisper at the end of the sentence, giving stimulation to the admiral.

But this time, she wasn't shaken.

Slowly and gently, she pushed her hand that was guided by her wife…

…and her thing…went in.

"Ahh…it went in…! Houshou-san…it went in…!"

"Fufu, good job, Ayumi-san." Houshou beamed a smile. Its radiant did not lose to the violent sunlight blazing just outside their windows. "But what suddenly made you want to learn how to stitch?"

 _"""WHAT THE FUUUUU!?"""_

""!?""

Voices thundered from beyond the door leading outside, but the two lovebirds were too shocked to even react properly. But just as they were about to stand and do something, much less get the door, it was already kicked open, and three furious girls sprung out from behind it.

"W-w-w-w-w-what's with the perverted conversation if you're just about to stit—wait!"

The first one to unleash her rage is a short-haired girl with bountiful bosom covered with pure white bikini. Her fury was understandably interrupted as they process what entered their vision.

The admiral and her new wife was certainly not doing anything perverted. On her right hand was a needle with its hole sticking up, and on her left hand was her _thing_ …which of course refers to the string she put into the hole on the needle.

But that was not what made the bob-cut girl fume with anger this time.

The admiral was doing that while also cradling Houshou, who clung onto the admiral like a baby; one who's old enough to recognize that her current situation was embarrassing, thus her head turned to an oversized tomato with a ponytail.

Naturally, she struggled free to get out of the current situation, but it caused her to fall back-first onto the floor as she was sitting on the admiral's lap, but then she tried to straighten herself up, clearing her throat and attempted to emit a dignified aura while asking, "My, miss Hamakaze, Ooyodo and Shigure, how do you do."

 _Swoosh_ , sounded the imaginary blizzard that flew by the room despite the blazing summer temperature.

Her attitude caused the rest of the people in the room (admiral included) to look at her with a look of doubt, as if they were about to say _you're not fooling anyone at this point._

"W…weren't you…going to the beach?" feeling the awkwardness, the admiral carefully breaks the ice by asking the three people who entered the room in their swimwear.

"W-well…about that," the first one was the person who first barged in and voiced her complaint; a short-haired bob-cut girl with her bangs covering her right eye and a pair of disproportionately large breasts for her frame, the Kagerou-class destroyer Hamakaze. "I…I heard something happen from Ooyodo-san, a-and I think I'm scheduled to be the secretary from today, so I'd like to…you know, maybe get a head start to what I might have to do…"

Thus, with her report, the admiral's eyes turned to the other person concerned; Ooyodo, who, like the admiral and the rest, had a blush on her face that even fogged up her rimless glasses.

"I um…I received a message from the Navy HQ…something about a transfer…" she said, adjusting her glasses for no reason. "…but probably before we start talking about it, I think it would be appropriate if we changed out of our swimwear first."

The admiral nodded awkwardly, "while I agree with you…why didn't you do that _before_ you actually come here…? _And if so you'd have given us a little more time alone…_ " she stated, leaving the latter sentence a barely audible mutter that no one, even Houshou who's next to her, could hear. The normally tomboy admiral turned out to have a pretty feminine side to her. Her question also left the guests looking for excuses as their irises swam around the room, looking for excuses. "That aside, what's Shigure doing here then?"

Finally, she brought the third member of the group into subject; a short girl with braided black hair that had parts of it jutting out on the sides of her head like cute, droopy dog ears, that is Shigure. The personification of the second ship of the Shiratsuyu-class didn't have as plentiful chest as Hamakaze and Ooyodo, but her black-and-white laced bikini not only shows but also emphasizes her modest, but nevertheless peerless beauty. Since the three entered the room, she hasn't been saying anything, but she was intently glaring at the admiral with her eyes looking like the depths of the abyss. Additionally, no one else realized this, but her right hand was holding an empty bottle of Poccari Sweet drink…thoroughly crushed into a pathetic bit.

"S-Shigure?"

But her admiral's call snapped her back to reality. Her grip loosens, and her eyes regained its shine.

"Well~ of course I was just interested in seeing how my dear commander is doing~" Strangely enough, while it seemed like she was in a daze, she heard what the commander asked her, and she also gave a reasonable answer. The admiral felt a slight chill on her back when she noticed Shigure's glare, but nevertheless she responded with an "okay…?"

"Either way, since you're already here, why don't you just put on some of those jackets?", the admiral pointed at a clothes hanger in the corner of the room right next to the door. The three newcomers look at each other, wordlessly discussing over a second before nodding in consent. The hanger is lined up with the admiral's favorite jackets as she had a hobby of collecting dank jackets and coats, so the three girls can pick any of them freely. Somehow, it looked like it goes without saying that the three picked hoodies that matched the color of their swimwear; Hamakaze choosing white, Ooyodo with light blue, and Shigure with black and linings of red shades.

After quickly zipping the hoodies on, the three girls lined up again in front of the admiral's desk, but this time, they start to act professionally like a soldier. They stood straight, gave a stern salute, and stood at ease. Ooyodo being at the center, she started reporting to the admiral.

"Command Cruiser Ooyodo reporting," she uttered, leading to a nod from the admiral, giving her permission. "As of today, August 15 on 09:31 local time, I received a message from Naval HQ regarding, and I quote the subject; _"A transfer of 3 shipgirls to your naval base.",_ end of quote."

 _A transfer…_

The admiral took the information with a stoic face, but there was one thing that bugged her, aside from the fact that a transfer is a very rare case that almost never happen in the Navy.

"Why did the Naval HQ send the message to you?" she asked, "I believe we do have a proper procedure of relaying messages between our naval base and the Naval HQ, so why did they do that?"

However, Ooyodo also had an answer prepared. "The Naval HQ reported as well in this message, that this message is relayed as such, because they are planning to make a system of fluid transfer between bases, and this transfer will be the experimental stage. They considered that there might be a lot more transfers in the future, so they plan to make a system for it." She reported, reading from her office phone. She also planned to explain this even without her commander asking, but she hadn't gotten the chance to.

"But still, why didn't they send the message for me instead…"

"There is another reason, though I apologize I might not understand," said Ooyodo again.

"And that is?"

"It says here… _"plot convenience"_?"

"…"

"…"

"I hate the author so much." Ashikaga Ayumi let out a sigh as she lifelessly hung her head like a marionette that had just been cut from its strings. "But anyways, let's move on…when will the transfer happen?"

"This afternoon," Ooyodo replied, "they are expected to arrive here at 15:00 local time."

"Well that's sudden…" the admiral muttered, frowning slightly. "And their data?"

"I shall forward the data to your personal tablet," said Ooyodo as she fiddled on her phone.

"While we wait on her, Hamakaze?"

"Y-yes…!" Responding to her commander's call, the Kagerou-class destroyer raised her arm to a quick salute again.

"Today's your turn to be the secretary from…midday, I believe?"

"Yes ma'am!"

Since the incident where the Admiral married Houshou, the entirety of the active fleets requested one thing in exchange of allowing Houshou to have her sweet joy with the admiral;

They requested that each one of them have a turn to be the secretary ship for at least two days on a scheduled basis. Houshou was initially dissatisfied with this, since she said she will have the time with her partner greatly reduced by not being the secretary ship, but finally she backed down and complied after the other girls gave her twice the normal duration (four days per session) and rubbing in her face the fact that she already got _the_ ring. The girls' argument in why they wanted this is that they might have a chance to deepen their relationship with the admiral while serving next to her as her secretary.

The admiral, of course, had no say in this, thus she could only let out a barely audible sigh.

And thus, after four days of Houshou's session, it's time to change the secretary.

That was why, by the way, the admiral and Houshou was getting chummy earlier; to savor the time they had left together.

Previously before Houshou was the submarine tender Taigei, who served the commander with _tender_ care like a thoroughly trained maid but had the spoiled personality of a five-year-old daughter.

Meanwhile the next secretary in line was Hamakaze. She looks nervous at first, but the admiral thinks she is the type of person who could show her best when the time comes.

Some might call her naïve, but the admiral always says that about everyone, but at the same time, that thought of her might be what allowed her girls to show their full potential when needed.

As a matter of fact, the fact that Hamakaze took the initiative to approach the admiral just as she noticed something is up clearly emphasizes her eagerness in helping with the admiral's works.

"Okay, since Houshou-san already finished her portion of paperwork, your first task would be to help me with the paperwork for the transfer. The rest is to be announced later in the day."

"R-roger that."

"I've sent the transferring unit's data, miss Admiral." As the conversation ended, Ooyodo lifted her face from her phone and reported to the admiral again.

"Thanks. Let's see here…" In response, the admiral opened the reports and data from her own tablet, bringing up a spreadsheet that contains four pages of full reports containing three pages of data that includes profile photo, name and hull number, class, hull classification, armaments, and notes, mainly the reason why the unit was transferred. The first page, however, includes an introduction file regarding the whole transfer system.

The first few paragraphs mainly were an introduction of the Navy HQ, which was unnecessary since the admiral knew well about what the navy and its motto is all about, so she decided to skip right to the meat of the paper and read it for the people around the room to hear.

" _In recent light of complaints filed by shipgirls from multiple naval bases, we have implemented stricter regulations and are enforcing strict countermeasures against harassment and/or misuse of shipgirls in naval districts across the nation._ Blah blah blah… _complaints of multiple shipgirls within a naval district will call in a court martial on the commanding officer of that naval base_ …damn." The admiral's lips curled downwards. " _shipgirls who are victims of harassments or expresses great concern of her well-being if she is to stay within a naval base, after careful discussion and consideration from the Navy Headquarters, may request a transfer away from their naval base, to one of the several qualified naval bases for reassigning and rehabilitating. The qualified bases and the destination of the transfer are decided by the Navy Headquarters._ "

The shipgirls around the admiral were rather confused on how to react, so few of them decided to purse their lips, while the rest attempted to make a neutral expression.

" _To avoid mishandling of information, the Navy Headquarters will only relay this message to the naval bases qualified to be the destination of transfer and request the admirals of the qualified naval bases not to disclose the information to any other commanding officers, apart from fellow qualified admirals_."

Under that line was a list of qualified naval bases and its commander's name. Ashikaga Ayumi's name is listed at the very top, with a note saying that her naval base is the most qualified (since she is one of the very few female officers that are talented, trusted by her ships, and on active duty). Three other names are listed under hers, including her close friend Yamamoto Yuuji, which enabled the admiral to heave a sigh of relief since she didn't need to keep any more secrets from him as she already has.

"That's actually the last info they gave us." Said the admiral as she checked the last paragraph being a summary of the document and something like 'we look forward in working with you to improve the transfer system'. Thus, the admiral moved forward and opened the next page on the spreadsheet, which elaborates on the ships that are transferred to her base.

The profile picture on the first page showed a blonde-haired woman with blue outfit outlining her busty stature and a matching-colored beret sitting on top of her head. Maybe because of the gloomy expression the girl seemed to emit, the photo looked less like a profile photo and more like a mugshot. Underneath the photo was the specification of the girl; the heavy cruiser, Atago.

Upon reading her name, the admiral raised an eyebrow.

"Hamakaze, is Takao out on an escort?" asked the admiral, moving her gaze from the tablet to the destroyer in front of her table.

"I…I don't know…" unfortunately the destroyer was unable to produce a satisfactory answer, replying in disappointment.

"I don't believe so, miss Admiral. Her escort fleet returned yesterday, and she should be resting in the docks by now." Instead, the admiral's lovely wife replied in her stead.

The admiral replied with a short _hmm_.

"Hamakaze, when you get to be the secretary, be sure to check and understand the schedules and status of all main fleets and escort fleets." Said the admiral, relaying her first order. Hamakaze in return replied with a short " _Understood!_ " while throwing another salute.

"Anyways, we'll call Takao later and ask her to follow us in welcoming the transfers. Apparently, her sister Atago is going to be posted here." The admiral slipped her hand into her office cap to scratch her head before adjusting it back onto place and continued reading the report.

As her armaments and stats were on her default, the admiral only skimmed over it and went straight to the notes section at the bottom of the page.

 _The second ship of the Takao-class Heavy Cruiser, Atago. Her fleet posted a complaint to the Navy Headquarters on the █_ _of August, accusing their admiral of sexually harassing his shipgirls, especially Atago in particular. The commander, whose name initial will therefore be mentioned as_ F _, kept Atago from executing her duties and instead keeping her for [REDACTED] meanwhile threatening her that if she did not obey, she will be scrapped. The experience led Atago to be deeply hurt and therefore the possibility of her becoming androphobic is present._ F _is currently undergoing trials, and his fleet is awaiting a new commander to be posted._

"Damn", the admiral muttered under her breath.

The information was quite enough for her, so the admiral flipped to the next page.

The next girl is a destroyer—or what people would normally think judging by her overall size, but Taihou and Ryuujou had once proven that one cannot judge someone (specifically their hull designation) just by the size alone. The girl's most defining feature was her ponytailed bright green wavy hair that drapes on her shoulders and her tiny back. Incidentally, unknown if it was because of the treatment from her last naval base or it was her natural face, but it looked like she was about to cry any second.

However, it didn't necessarily seem that she was abused, based on the report.

" _The eighth ship of the Shiratsuyu-class destroyer Yamakaze, had expressed concerns regarding her purpose in her previous naval base. According to her reports and background checks, her admiral,_ I.A., _had been reported to to show lack of motivation to progress developing their navy, much less finishing missions from Navy HQ. Yamakaze herself was one of the few ships [see addendum] who were left without duty for prolonged periods of time without given opportunities to develop. Therefore, Yamakaze and a few of her friends decided to express their concerns to the Navy HQ that she could be more useful and develop better on other naval bases._ Hmm. I like this girl." The admiral lifted her lips' corners as she finished reading the report on Yamakaze. "Still, this could be a reason to request transfer and…it could be granted, huh…"

The admiral seemed hesitant as she said that, throwing worried glances at the four ships in the room with her.

"What is it, miss admiral?" but when her glance falls upon her wife next to her, the worry in her heart felt like it melts away into nothing, and she could focus back to work.

"Nothing, let's move on."

It apparently had been a while when the admiral glanced around, the screen of her tablet dimmed for the purpose of saving energy, so the admiral randomly touched the screen to wake it back up. Thus, she scrolled to the next page.

And then, she opened her eyes wide and dropped her jaw.


	2. The Arrival

Approximately six hours later, the admiral, her wife, and the secretary ship Hamakaze stood on standby on the port. Several other shipgirls were also next to them, notably, the Takao-class lead ship Takao, the energetic destroyer Shiratsuyu, as well as the command cruiser Ooyodo.

In the blazing summer, the sun hinted that it was about to go down, but there was almost no decrease in the intensity of sunlight beating on the concrete pier that extends to the sea as well as the seawater itself. The humidity of the seawater combined with the sweltering heat would immediately drive people away from wearing thick clothing or even those that covered the majority of the skin. Even Takao whose uniform is a long-sleeved dark blue collared shirt chose to pick a short-sleeved version with a lighter blue shade to allow her to bear the heat slightly better.

But apparently, the atmosphere didn't manage to change the admiral's clothes selection. Even with the temperature varying above 30° Centigrade, she was still adamant in wearing her white T-shirt with a topping of long, dark-grey coat that just screams its thickness. Even more, in between her shirt and her coat, she donned a dark blue hoodie, albeit a lot thinner than a usual hoodie.

So after including her pair of underwear and excluding her footwear and headgear, she was wearing 5 pieces of clothing at that time.

The shipgirls once asked why, but apparently her reason is solely because she didn't feel comfortable if the sunlight directly hits her skin, so she would rather choose to protect herself from it, even though she could still feel the heat build up from within. _What about sweat and body odor?_ someone else once asked, and she confidently said that although she _did_ sweat under her thick outfits, body odors did not tend to seep out unless she takes off the coat and hoodie.

A testimony from said person's wife reported that she didn't as much smell bad even though she sweats (although she also acknowledges the possible halo effect), and a certain Shiratsuyu-class destroyer proudly and energetically argues that she won't even mind it one bit even if she does, hinting an obsessive-level of halo effect.

Regardless, despite her heavy and considerably thick outfit, the outline of her figure was still charming as ever, which could only leave the concerned shipgirls to wonder why.

After several minutes of waiting in the blistering heat, a cargo ship arrived on the port. It was the navy's cargo ship specifically used for transporting materials, ammunition and military foods and rations, but this time, they were carrying something different.

As the admiral and her ships passed a salute to the arriving ship, the ship, assisted by fairy-driven tugboat begun its mooring. After it came to a standstill, the cargo bay door swung open, creating a bridge from its hull to the dock the admiral and her ships are standing on.

Three shipgirls slowly and hesitatingly exited the ship, all three of them were the ships earlier described on the report read by the admiral and her assistants. As they were to transfer in and live with admiral Ayumi's navy from now on, they were travelling complete with their armaments.

A foreign-looking blonde lady, the second ship of Takao-class heavy cruiser, Atago.

The bright-green-haired timid girl, one of the many sisters of Shiratsuyu-class, Yamakaze.

And lastly, a brown-haired beauty. Her heavy armaments seemed like it would rattle every time she took a step, but the perfectly-crafted cannons and smaller guns didn't as much let out any sound. Instead, due to its size and weight, even the sturdily-constructed treen dock creaked under the massive weight of her armament alone.

Of course, it was mostly because she was equipped with three cannons with the biggest caliber mankind had ever manufactured; the 46cm triple main gun turret. She was no one else but the lead ship of the Yamato-class, Yamato herself.

Her report stated that she was facing mostly the same hardships as Yamakaze; there was a lacking capability of her previous admiral to lead his fleet well enough. The report briefly outlined that although the admiral _did_ meet the requirement to be assigned a navy, he was extremely young, being under 20 albeit his real age was not disclosed. This is by far the only case, the report said. There were also multiple other cases of underage commanding officers that leads to an unorganized, if not failed navy. The problem was quite difficult to pinpoint, because depending on the shipgirls, some of them may adore the innocent, arguably cute demeanor of those commanding officers and chose not to report them (some of them even reported to have manipulated their commanding officers sexually, trials on those shipgirls are under discussion in the Navy HQ). However, some shipgirls like Yamato who raised their concerns because they achieved no progress in their naval development programs were also not uncommon, and this case is one of the agenda of the navy HQ to deal with in the near future, along with the transfer program.

Looking at the face of the super battleship, Ayumi sighed while still holding her hand up for a salute. "This is why parents need to monitor their children more closely on what games they play instead of just blaming the media for their misconduct." The admiral said.

If you would please stop breaking the fourth wall, that would be appreciated.

"Then don't write it!"

"M…Miss admiral?"

"Ah…no, it's okay."

As the admiral was busy talking to herself like an idiot, the three newly transferred ships arrived in front of the admiral. They had to make distance from each other because of the size of their armaments (again, notably Yamato's), so after they all stopped at their position, they raised their arms firmly to make a salute. In response, the admiral's group lowered their arms.

"Welcome to our naval base. I'm Ashikaga Ayumi, your new CO." She said with confidence, puffing her unnecessarily large chest while putting her left hand behind her back while using her other hand to introduce her comrades. "To my left is Houshou the general manager and second-in-charge after me, Akashi, the arsenal manager, and Takao, whom I believe Atago had known her already," the foreign girl nodded hesitatingly. "And to my right is Hamakaze, my current secretary ship, Ooyodo the command cruiser and the one in charge of intelligence and communication, and the lead ship of the Shiratsuyu-class."

One by one as the ships around the admiral was mentioned, they either bowed down or gave another quick salute to the new members of the navy.

"Welcome to the naval base, Atago." Takao gently said to her little sister who had been looking down since the moment they arrived. Her expression brightened, albeit almost unnoticeably. Shiratsuyu also tried greeting Yamakaze, which got her to at least stop shivering.

"I must apologize to Yamato beforehand; your sister isn't here, so we were unable to pick her up to greet you." The admiral bowed slightly, signifying humility, but still showing her leadership value of not bowing her head to everyone.

Yamato replied, "I don't mind…," doubts still linger in her eyes. Of course the admiral understood that trust cannot be won in a day, so she could only do everything she can to gain, not just Yamato's, but all of the the new ships' trust.

"Anyways, you all must be tired, so let me give you a choice;" the admiral said, putting her hand on her waist. "Do you want to rest first, do you want dinner first, or…I know it might be a bit early, but do you want to have a briefing?"

"""Eh…?"""

The three ships did not respond; they merely opened their eyes wide. For the admiral who sometimes think slightly too lowly of herself, she thought that their response was unfavorable, so she decided to elaborate.

"I…if you want to rest, I'll procure the room of one of the active fleets for you to use, since I do believe sleeping in the barracks after a long haul wouldn't make you feel relieved. If it's dinner, we're just about to make a really early dinner since the other girls were just done playing in the beach and they all got really hungry." The admiral stuttered a bit, visibly nervous. Because she was afraid of further fouling the girls' mood, she also completely skipped the idea of doing briefing.

But contrary to her thought, their reactions weren't unfavorable. Rather, they were merely shocked.

The abused Atago exclaimed, "Unconditional rest?"

Yamakaze, who never had chance to serve as a shipgirl hollered, "Actual briefing?"

Yamato, whose naval base was rarely taken care of questions, "…food?" and in addition, she also asked "What do you mean, 'the girls were just done playing in the beach'? is that an analogy for a shoreline artillery support mission? Expedition to the Spratly Islands? Liberating Oki…" Yamato shuddered before she could even finish her last word.

"No, not at all!" The admiral immediately stepped in to prevent Yamato's PTSD from relapsing, which could possibly affect Hamakaze as well who has been by her side in the Empire's last mission. "I just think that the amount of resources had been optimal and we've finished most of the missions from the HQ after 3 months of hard work, so I gave them a bit of a summer holiday—!"

"Optimal resources!?"

"Hard work!? Finished missions?!"

"S-s-summer holiday?!"

The three was shocked for reasons the admiral thought was so absurd, it's laughable.

But their shock only outlines how backwards their previous naval bases were, and it once more shines a light on how much good a simple movement like the transfer program could be.

"A-anyways, so what would you girls choose…? Rest, food, or briefing?" The admiral asked after stepping aback from the girls' shock.

But the girls hesitated.

The first one to respond was Atago, whose question might also define why they were hesitant to reply. "…Is…is it even okay for us to make that choice?" She asked. Her eyes were swimming around, not sure where to look. For Atago who hasn't known the admiral for even five minutes, she was afraid that anything she did wrong could end up making her something even worse than a sex slave.

The admiral had thought that this feeling would be restricted to Atago, but surprisingly she found the other two ships silently agreeing to what she said.

But the admiral returned Atago's question with a question of her own, "Why shouldn't you make the choice?" she said, almost as if oblivious.

"B…because we haven't done anything useful…I usually wasn't allowed to even eat before I do some…work…" Atago continued dubiously.

"Oh what nonsense," this time, Atago's elder sister was the one who replied. But again, this only got Atago more scared since Takao's words that were completely uncalled for must have ticked off the admiral. But that wasn't the case. The admiral didn't say anything, not even changing her facial expression. "Our admiral isn't the type of person to do that!" The heavy cruiser was nonchalant in her tone, which Atago could only think of her sister a pococurante.

But in truth, the admiral herself didn't mind.

"You know, if you think that everything has to do with work, just put it like this," the admiral smiled, "if you…or I, in that matter, didn't take care of my subordinates well enough, they won't be able to work properly, will they?"

The ships stayed silent, as if whispering _I guess…_

"So there's nothing wrong with me trying to make sure you're in top condition before being assigned missions, right?"

"Yes…" Yamakaze silently replied in Atago's stead this time.

"So to tell you about the schedule I have in mind, I would like to brief you about assessing your strength in battle by doing a simple mock battle with our active fleets, but before we do that, we need to get your strength back up by either rest or consuming food, so I asked you which would you like to do first."

The three ships looked at each other in disbelief.

"That's the person our admiral is, so just accept it gratefully!" Shiratsuyu hollered joyfully as she stood at ease with her arms behind her head.

"W-well…" the ships seem convinced, but of course, they still had their doubt. What if this is just to make a good first impression before being told to work to death? But as they had no other choice, they decided to accept. "I…I think we would…take a rest…if we may…"

"Understood," the admiral responded, her neat eyebrows raised gleefully, "then please report to Akashi and head for the armory to get your armaments stripped and stored, and after that we'll send you to the dormitory. You'll be temporarily assigned as the 6th fleet so that you can use the room."

"W-wait, you didn't have to assign us a room! We'll be fine in the barracks! A-a-and…sixth fleet? Aren't you only supposed to have four?" Yamato exclaimed her questions in barrages, but it was quite understandable. Why would the admiral go so far as to replace her active fleet with only three ships, while the fleet's room could be occupied by up to 6 ships?

"This naval base originally only had 5 active fleets three months ago, but to strengthen our advances, so she went and fulfilled the requirements to have one more active fleets, with a total of six." Houshou said.

"Just between you and me, I was only fulfilling those requirements to allow us to build more dormitory rooms." The admiral chuckled. "I _do_ plan to increase the number of our active fleet by one, but I haven't decided who the members will be yet."

"and the admiral only planned to use the dormitory room. The active fleet part was just a bonus." Ooyodo added.

The admiral then supplemented, "The room can be handy if people like you come around and need some quality rest. Besides, when we assess your strength later we need you to be on the active fleet anyways, so there's no problem with that, right?"

The development of the navy left the three ships flabbergasted. They were impatient to see what lies ahead of them, but they were still cautious of what they should and shouldn't do.

"Either way, please follow Akashi into the armory, and we'll get you sorted out."

"""R-roger that…"""

* * *

Less than five minutes later, the three ladies had been stripped off of their armaments and they were on their way to the dormitory rooms. The ones that accompanied them, however dropped in numbers, from 7 to only 4.

"I haven't gotten a 46 cm to tweak with so I'd stay here and adjust it a bit," said Akashi before disappearing into the armory with Yuubari, who only stopped by the armory to take her dirty work clothes after she playing in the beach (hence she was only in her melon-green bikini) and go to dinner, but she immediately jumped upon seeing the magnificent 46 cm gun, and immediately decided to tweak the gun with Akashi.

She didn't even think of changing out of her bikini and instead chose to work in it.

Ooyodo also said, "I shall go register your identity to our navy's system, so I'll be off to the data room." She then proceeded to separate as the girls were about to enter the dormitory building.

Lastly, the admiral herself bid herself off earlier, "I'll be going to do the daily dinner announcement, so you girls go ahead", she said as she went into the dining room instead of sending the three ships up to their room. Thus, the three new ships were only left with the secretary ship Hamakaze, the mothership Houshou and Yamakaze and Atago's sister.

"Alright, this will be your room, if there's anything we can help you with, just ask away," said Hamakaze, trying to act her best as the secretary ship as not to embarrass her beloved commander. She held the door open for the three girls to come in while the rest of their company lined up next to her.

"Thank you," Yamato chimed, gingerly entering the room. The other two transfer ship followed inside the dormitory room and looked around in apparent amazement. "And…what are we supposed to do from now on…?"

"Umm…" Hamakaze was out of things to say. It was obvious for her what the answer was, and it was obvious even to the three ships what they were supposed to do as the admiral already explicitly told them, but their hesitation and doubt was what led them to asking once more, overwhelming the aspiring secretary ship. In the end, she threw a glance towards the expert on the subject, Houshou, in plea.

"I do believe the admiral already told you…or rather, _allowed_ you to take your time and recover from the long journey. You'll be allowed to mingle and catch up with your sisters, sleep, or play to your heart's content." Houshou explained with expertise. "When you're done, you can proceed to the dining room to have dinner. I shall help you with that."

"Houshou-san always helps out with making dinner, so her cooking skill is admirable!" Shiratsuyu asserted.

"B-but…" Yamato and the group were still doubtful; what did they do to deserve all of these offers? They still thought that this is just a bad premonition to what's about to come.

"No buts!" But Houshou rebutted with her usual motherlike conduct; "the admiral told you, didn't she? If you're not on peak capability, you'll not be able to perform missions flawlessly?"

Even the superbattleship could only nod under the motherlike pressure of the mothership.

"So please, enjoy yourself," Houshou continued, "You will have to face one of the main fleets during the practice exercise to assess your strength. Our children can be a little bit competitive, especially regarding practice battles, **s** _ **o if you really want to stay uninjured and be useful to our navy, please proof yourself then**."_

Houshou smiled…but her eyes weren't.

But afterwards, almost as if a stormy weather suddenly turned into a gentle, sunny weather, Houshou's expression did a full 180 and she bid farewell with the most reassuring smile one can ever see in the planet. Thus, with the intent of helping Mamiya and Irako in serving dinner in the mess hall, she left the three new ships along with the two sisters and Hamakaze.

"…Hey, Takao-chan…has Houshou-san ever been that scary before?" Sweat flows down Shiratsuyu's soft cheek as she asked.

"…I don't think so…" The heavy cruiser in question was also sweating, her face slightly pale.

Hamakaze explained, "Uh…I think it started after that Luger girl came…she became deadly serious when it comes to battles…no matter if it's practice or the real thing..." but she wasn't exempt from shivering from whatever expression Houshou just showed.

Apparently, Houshou also left some questions (and fear) after her absence.


	3. The Bramble Fleet, Again

A little less than two hours later after the three transfer ships were dropped into their room, they decided to go to the cafeteria through memory when the admiral bid herself off before. Shiratsuyu and Takao were absent since they also told them that they wanted to get dinner as soon as possible, so the three had to cruise to the mess hall themselves.

As usual, they were moving very carefully, partly because they're not familiar with the surrounding and partly because they were still nervous. However, their fear of upsetting the navy because of their delay is what primarily led them to quickly go to the mess hall.

Upon entering the room, the mess hall was still boisterous. "That's weird," Yamakaze thought. "Weren't dinner supposed to last about an hour tops?"

But everybody knows that they will not get an answer just by waiting around, so they opened the door.

What greets them inside the vast mess hall is like a painting of Jeebus' last feast. In the middle of a long table was the admiral in the middle of stacks of paper documents, while all around her were several ship girls, either playing around, snacking, or bothering the admiral. Not including Houshou and Hamakaze, there were also six ships; one destroyer, light aircraft carrier, and battleship each, and three heavy cruisers.

And that was when the admiral coincidentally lifted her eyes from one of the documents she's been sorting and met the three ships standing absentmindedly in front of the door.

"Ah you're here," the admiral exclaimed, bringing the three girls into the center of the 6+ other girls' attention. "Come, have a seat anywhere you like," she said, "Houshou-san, can you bring some food for them please? Thank you~"

Unlike earlier, Houshou' smile is full of love as she nodded to the admiral's words and disappears into the kitchen. Not wanting to let the admiral wait, the three girls stiffly approached one of the seats across the admiral and sat down gingerly.

"Okay, while we wait for your food, why don't I brief you about your activity for tomorrow?" the admiral suggested as she shifted her documents away. The girls around her seemed to have quieted down even without cue, and they were standing at the ready, as if they're all the admiral's bodyguards. The three ships steeled themselves in preparation for the briefing. A bit funny, the admiral thought, that the girls are preparing for a preparation.

"So as you have guessed, for me to get to know you, I'll need to assess your strengths first, and to do that, I'll do a quick mock battle between you three along with three more ships of your choice, versus these folks of the Bramble Fleet."

As if it's the cue, the six members of the bramble fleet bowed simultaneously, before starting an introduction sequence, starting from their flagship.

"Light Aircraft Carrier Shouhou, pleased to meet you", said Shouhou as she bowed her head down perfectly.

"Ise-class Super-Dreadnought Hyuuga. My sister and I were intentionally not upgraded into a hybrid carrier due to the admiral's whims, but nevertheless, I'm looking forward to working with you." It wasn't Hyuuga if she didn't throw a casual insult towards the admiral with cool, collected, poker face, but everyone in the room knows that she did that out of love.

"Second of the Furutaka-class, Kako," said the tomboyish girl next to her. "Looking forward to working with ya!"

"Myoukou-class cruiser, Ashigara here. Pleased to meet with all of you." Ashigara was next, bowing with a manner like that of an office lady.

"U-Ushio here. Please take care of me." The destroyer comes next. She was rather nervous that she slightly jumped when it came to her turn, which inevitably shook her superfluous boobs that were out of proportion compared with her rather small frame.

And lastly, "Mogami-class Aviation Cruiser's name ship, Mogami," she said as she threw a nonchalant salute, "I'll be looking forward to our match!" As energetic as ever, Mogami lightly jumped a couple of times as if she's stretching her legs.

"As energetic as ever, huh Mogami?" I already said that. "…anyways, you three should introduce yourselves as well. I told them about your arrival, but you should really introduce yourself to them."

But again, they were a nervous wreck. The ships that they will be facing looked powerful, as a result from an actively developing navy. They were excited and even impatient to immediately get into action, but that excitement combined with a mix of admiration/fear of the six astonishing ships right in front of them made their heart beat erratically.

"It is only acceptable for the members of our navy to be polite, so can you introduce yourself already?"

But it was the cold words of Hyuuga who stabbed through the three's chest, prompting a scared _Hyiii!?_ from the little destroyer that is Yamakaze.

"S-S-S-S-S-Shiratsuyu-class destroyer Y-Y-Yamakaze…p-pleased to meet y-yhou?!" In response to the shock, Yamakaze could only reply in a flurry, causing her to bite her tongue in the end as she was busy shuddering.

"Ta…Takao-class second ship…Atago…r-reporting in" Meanwhile, Atago restlessly swung her body around, either because it's her habit, or because she was not sure where to look.

"Yamato-class super-battleship Yamato…ready for duty…" Lastly Yamato felt embarrassed and inferior to the super-dreadnought Hyuuga who had been yelling about, so she couldn't muster enough volume to answer Hyuuga's call.

"Hoh," but Hyuuga, still dissatisfied from the answer she received, let out a half-hearted scoff, "Yamakaze, stop stuttering. Atago, stop swinging your udders around and stand in full attention. Yamato, your guns shouldn't be the only big thing you have; speak up!" Hyuuga put both her hands onto her hip and stepped forward, almost knocking the table. The other ships of her fleet wasn't just doing nothing in response to her sudden outburst; they were doing nothing while looking confused.

"Listen here you little nerds, you're in the presence of our great admiral. She's the emperor, she's the king. She's the Bruce Lee of the naval world and—!"

 _Pomf_

"Stop it!" It was about time the admiral felt embarrassed, thus she lightly slapped Hyuuga's head with a roll of documents she picked up from the table. "Come on, Hyuuga, at least make me a queen, even if it's just your imagination!", said the admiral, clearly retorting on the wrong point. "Don't put too much pressure for them as well. They've been going through a lot, so you know, maybe be kind to them a bit."

"Miss admiral, you're too kind for your own sake!" But Hyuuga was adamant in wanting to be strict with the new ships. "If things didn't get so bad, you won't even need that Lu-girl to be beside you, so we. Need. To. Whip. These. People. To. Shape!" Hyuuga slapped the back of her hand with every last few words to emphasize the importance of their quick development.

"Hyuuga you misunderstood," the admiral was also as hard-headed as her subordinate, "you will see every commanding officers with personal weapons, even these girls' old CO's have one, right?" The admiral turned her question towards the three new girls, and she received a unanimous nod. "It just happened that I get to pick my own, that's why I have her."

 _Wait, you can pick your own?_ Someone from the new group asked in a voice that's barely a whisper.

"Besides, do you not like it if I'm too lenient?" Then, the admiral shot a question back to Hyuuga.

"My apologies admiral, but I do not understand your question." Due to her poker face, it was unclear if Hyuuga really didn't understand or she was simply playing dumb.

"Do you hate me if I'm too lenient? Should I be stricter towards you lots from now on as well?" asked the admiral.

But with barely enough time for the admiral to take a breath in, Hyuuga immediately retorted, "Who said I hate you? If anything, I like you the m—mmmpghh?!", though she was greeted by a spoonful of something to her mouth.

"Alright, enough flirting with my darling," said the voice behind the spoon. "Seriously, miss admiral, I can't even leave you alone for five minutes without this happening."

"Wait, it's my fault now?"

Apparently, Houshou had returned with a tray filled with 4 plates of curry rice. Three of them looked normal, but for some reason, there is one… _special_ one that's somehow glowing red.

Incidentally, it was also the curry that Houhou forcefully fed the now-fleeing Hyuuga.

"Here are your dinners," said Houshou to the transferred ships as she set down the three normal curry rices, "and here's miss admiral's" then she put down the admiral's on her table, right across the three girls.

The aroma wafted in the air, and the girls around the admiral choked violently.

"W-what's with that curry!? A-are you trying to poison the admiral?!" Yamato immediately stood up from her seat, knocking her chair back and made a tremor on the table.

"No, no, she's not!" the admiral's secretary ship was the one who stopped her. "How do I say it…the admiral's taste buds are bombed since long ago, so since then she liked eating hellishly spicy foods, so…"

"And that was also the reason she can't cook." Mogami chimed behind the admiral, trying to filter the air from the mix of whatever spicy ingredients inside that curry by covering her mouth. "Whenever she tried her own cooking, she couldn't taste properly, and when she actually can, it's already too far beyond saving."

"We couldn't believe that the admiral had something she's bad at," Ushio smiled wryly, "but even Houshou-san who's been by her side the longest said that she's a lost cause, so…"

The girls silently peered at the admiral who nonchalantly enjoying the flood of lava they called curry.

"Oh come on, can you please let us eat in peace for a while, I'm hungry," commented the admiral with the spoon stuck in her mouth for no reason.

But then, Atago realized something.

"T-the admiral hasn't eaten yet?"

"Well yes, she was waiting for all of you, so—?"

"I HUMBLY APOLOGIZE…!"

This time, Atago was the one who knocked over her chair and shook the table as she abruptly stood up and throws her head forward in an attempt to bow. Due to her recklessness, her blue beret was thrown somewhere, and her pretty blond locks fall into her portion of curry.

Tempted by her fellow transfer ship, Yamakaze and Yamato wasn't sure what to do, but in the end, they also stood and bowed; though they took a step back as to not ruin the food provided for them.

"Oh boy…" Someone muttered in a voice barely audible to Atago.

She was afraid to say the least. Her actions of resting had resulted in the admiral waiting for a long time without food. It was currently some minutes past eight; the sun is nowhere to be seen, and the mess hall was empty. Even for a normal dinner time, it would have been at least an hour too late. Everyone had finished their food, even returning to their previous activities; that could only signify how late they were.

Atago's breathing turned ragged.

Her entire body shuddered along with her lungs, and her hyperventilation caused her vision to blur and her mind dizzied.

"Atago," The strict voice struck her consciousness. Her vision twitches, but she barely managed to stay awake. Her past trauma is nothing to be shrugged about. "Please raise your head."

The voice of the admiral was very close. She had previously sat opposite of her, so what would she gain from circling around the long table to get next to her?

Was it to get Atago into her strike range? Is that it? Will she be further abused even in this astonishing naval base? Is there no place for her where she could be happy?

With those thoughts crossing her head, Atago raised her face and showed an obnoxiously pale face. She was about to cry, but held back her tears in fear of not being allowed to. She was about to pass out, but she held on in fear of creating more problems. She was tough…or at least that's what she's trying to be.

 _What a shame._

"Sit down, please."

Under the admiral's order, Atago cautiously tried to quickly sit down, despite swaying left and right, even almost knocking her portion of curry on the table. Yamakaze and Yamato briskly tried to help her, but with a wave of her hand, Atago signaled that she'll be fine by herself.

Afterwards, the admiral kneeled down.

"My goodness, if you're a girl then you should take care of your looks better." The admiral reached out for the Heavy Cruiser's locks with her cloth glove-clad hands and rubbed the curry off of Atago's hair.

"W-wait, miss admiral…!?"

"Stay still."

"B-but!"

"That's an order."

The keyword _order_ seemed act like a magic word, as the protesting Atago immediately shut her mouth even though she clearly seem like she had a lot more to say.

Her hair was stained by the curry, but it wasn't much. The admiral who finished rubbing them off after about fifteen seconds decided to pick up a handkerchief from her coat pocket and cleaned more curry stains that was transferred from the locks of Atago's hair to her clothes.

"Like I said, you should take care of your appearance," the admiral muttered, "You're a girl after all, you shouldn't decorate your appearance with curry."

The admiral returned put her handkerchief somewhere and retrieved a new one from another pocket.

"This is my personal opinion, but tears also don't suit you," she said, dabbing the handkerchief gently on the corner of the cruiser's eyes. "Here, take care of _that_ " the admiral pointed at her nose as she handed the handkerchief.

"B…but…"

"A hanky that isn't used to help a girl who's crying is a sad hanky. Go on, use it."

Atago hesitated, but after seeing her new CO smiling gently in front of her, her ability to refuse silently melts away, and while Atago was busy cleaning her face and blowing her nose, the admiral picked something from the top of the table and placed it on Atago's head.

"There you go, clean and beautiful." The admiral popped a charming smile as she said thus, causing the cruiser girl to blush. "Anyways, back to your food, all of you."

The admiral briskly circled back and landed her structurally superfluous behind onto the chair she sat on before and started chomping on her deadly curry before long.

"The three of you seem confused," Hamakaze chimed from beside the admiral, "It's normal that she did that, you know?"

"Yeap, I remembered the admiral just casually brushing the snow on top of my head as we returned from a mission in mid-February. Something about having her palm on top of my head feels assuring somehow." Kako smirked playfully as she latched on Hamakaze's topic.

"Houshou-san, you need to educate the admiral not to just casually flirt around like that…see, that cruiser girl's flag is already half erect." In the back of the group, Ashigara inches closer to the mother ship and whispered thus to her, but the reply wasn't what she expected.

"U-um…I guess…but that part of her I also find charming…aaaaa I'm concerned myselff!"

"Seriously!?"

But the commander used her authority to steer the conversation back to topic.

"Hey, let's not talk about me, okay? I was giving briefing until you guys start cutting me off."

It was Hyuuga who cut her off in the beginning, but she was nowhere to be found at that moment. A perfectly decent speculation would say that she's somewhere in the freezer of the cafeteria, looking for ice blocks that she can French kiss to ease the pain on her mouth.

"Anyways, you've seen your opponents, now you've got to build your team. Hamakaze?" The admiral briefly explained before calling out to her secretary, who then pulls out a set of papers from the pile nearby.

"Here are the list of ships that are capable to go toe-to-toe with the Bramble fleet. Most of them are from the main fleets, but you can "borrow" them temporarily for the exercise. The members of the main fleet are labeled in blue, and the unlabeled ones are on standby in the barracks. They are well prepared and well armed, so you don't have to worry about them falling behind" explained Hamakaze.

"W-why are some of these members had their names crossed?" Yamakaze asked, slightly nervous of what answer she might be getting.

"Oh, don't worry, those girls are either out on expedition or they're out on resource transport escort duty." It was transparent what the three was thinking about; they heaved a sigh of relief as they received a satisfactory answer from the admiral. "Anyways, tomorrow for the whole day, you'll be spending your time in the armory and the shooting range. Pick whatever armaments you like, get it calibrated, and get yourself comfortable with it. The deadline for your team building is by tomorrow evening, and you'll be starting your battle the next day, understood?"

"U-understood."

Before anyone knows it, the admiral's curry had already disappeared into her stomach, and she let out a little sigh mixed with a cute burp as she swallowed the last bit of the food.

"I will be directly in charge of these three," said the admiral to the Bramble fleet this time, "so fight them with all you got, alright?"

"Hmmm, maybe we'll need something to motivate us in that case…" Shouhou was childish for once; she glanced away in clear hint while smiling mischievously.

"IF WE WIN WE GET TO WASH THE ADMIRAL'S BACK!" Suddenly, Ashigara blurted it out, and it somehow raised the Bramble Fleet's morale all the way through the roof. "I'LL CALIBRATE MY GUN RIGHT NOW, WAIT FOR ME MISS ADMIRAL!"

"HELL YEAH!" Mogami followed suit, "I'd better get my planes calibrated! I'm off!"

"I'll tweak my bows! Wait for me, miss admiral's juicy butt!" Shouhou followed after Mogami and disappeared to the door.

"I'll prepare my torpedoes so I can get to those soft boobies!" Kako dashed off afterwards.

All that's left was Ushio, who was apparently also skipping her way out of the room while cheerfully humming "admiral's body~ will be miiiine~"

"HEY, I NEVER AGREED TO ANY OF THOSE! AND DIDN'T YOU SAY YOU'LL ONLY WASH MY BACK!?" the admiral voiced her concerns from her gut, but by the time she did, the girls of the Bramble fleet are already far away from the mess hall.

Just to let you all know, I'm miss admiral's legal wife," Houshou suddenly proclaimed her relationship boldly, even circling her arms around her husband's neck caringly. "So technically, she's mine."

"But the competition for the second, third, and so on is still ongoing. Inevitably, the admiral will belong to all of us."

"Oi…!"

Hamakaze was as cheerful as ever. She was excited to spend the next two days with the admiral to build her relationship with her while she's the secretary ship in the effort to contribute herself to that race she just proclaimed, so she could proudly announce her participation in the competition.

And thus, the unanimous reply from the three transfer ships were;

"""…wow."""

Though it might contain a different meanings for each one of them.


	4. Arming Armaments at the Armory

The next day, as the admiral said, was rather busy for the three new ships. The three needed calibration of their equipment not only to let them accurately and comfortably operate their weapon, but also to ensure that their armaments won't blow up by firing a single salvo.

"Why are we at the dry dock?" Yamato said early in the morning. She was standing in confusion in front of an empty dry dock while unarmed. It was the dry dock used for Large-Scale construction, but since it serves no purpose at the current moment, the admiral used it especially for Yamato whose hull would definitely not fit regular docks. She thought she was going to do calibration, but where are her armaments?

 _"Yamato, do a T-pose real quick"_ , said the admiral through an earpiece plugged onto Yamato's ear. She's supposed to be in the elevated observatory structure connected to the armory. It was built specifically for the admiral and the armory's engineers (i.e. Akashi and Yuubari) to oversee equipment developments as the shipgirls perform a test run on it.

"W-what's a T-pose?"

 _"Uh…basically stand up straight with both arms slightly apart from your body,"_ she said, _"and make sure you stand within that red circle on the ground."_

Yamato was alone in the docks. It was not only because she needed a different dry dock, it was because Atago and Yamakaze still had to have their rigs tweaked slightly before sea trial.

"Yamakaze's are one thing, but Atago's armaments are so unused that they're full of dust," said Akashi several minutes ago, seemingly overwhelmed by how under-maintained Atago's armaments were. "cleaning might take a while, so you could go ahead and calibrate Yamato-sama's armaments first, miss Admiral."

Thus, Yamato just by her lonesome approached the red circle and tried to make the _T-pose_ the admiral asked her to.

By then,

 _GA-CHAK_

"?!" The ground around her seemingly cracked in regular, but mechanical pattern. From within, illuminated with light blue fluorescent lamps, were several robotic arms that crept around Yamato while holding tightly into her heavy armament. "Wai…what is…?"

 _"Don't struggle around so much it'll be over soon."_ The admiral could only explain like an unlicensed doctor trying to inject a vaccine to a thrashing kid.

The arms accurately pinpointed Yamato's figure and started to attach the armor and armaments on its allocated places; her back, her shoulders, and her arms, including an intrinsic tablet-phone thing on her left wrist. She struggled quite a while since she's not used to it, so even the movement of the machine started to look irritated.

But as the last armament were put in place, Yamato noticed something else.

The flow of air had changed, and the sunlight that poured on her felt slightly different, like it was blocked by something,

As if something huge suddenly appears in front of her.

And as she turned her attention from the diligent robotic arms towards the dry dock, it was there.

The first aspect that greeted the girl's eyes was a golden chrysanthemum seal on the very tip of a massive object blocking her sight completely.

"T-this is…!?"

 _"Oh, your old base doesn't have this system?"_ the admiral asked.

"T-The game doesn't even work this way…!"

 _"Oh, believe me,"_ some younger-sounding girl from the room the admiral was in replied in her commander's stead, _"it gets weird around here, so please get used to it."_

 _"A-anyways, since we're going to do the calibration earlier, please board your ship so that we can go to the training waters."_ The admiral latched on immediately afterwards to prevent unnecessary arguments. _"Just jump up to the bow, Yamato, I'm sure you can do it."_

Yamato hesitated but nevertheless made the jump. Her general superhuman strength allowed her to jump over to her bow that was at least a dozen times her height.

The ship was suspended on a slipway on the dry dock, mainly for the ease of the ships to roll out from the dock, so right after Yamato boarded her ship, it slides backwards slowly at first, but it gained momentum the further it goes.

The seawater provided resistance for the ship to slow down, but due to the size of Yamato, the momentum she carried led her ship to drift away from the dock while creating a mini-tsunami on hier wake.

 _"Clean deployment,"_ Hamakaze reported from the base. _"Stretch your legs and prepare for sailing. Don't worry about your equipment for now."_

But the superbatteship could only mutter a very confused _uh_ as a response. She looked around from her front deck, not knowing what to do.

But as she thought of moving normally as how she cruise the sea on her legs, her ship was the one who made the move. _Ah_ , her lip parts as she let out a sigh of realization. She tried to fidget her legs while still looking unsure and confused, but within the minutes, she seemed to figure out the method of movement

 _"Seems like you have grasped the movement",_ Ayumi somehow chose to state the obvious, _"…the training waters are twenty-five kilometers west of your position, please go there and be ready for calibration training. Kashima should be there, so if you found her within radar range, you're going the right way. Besides, it's just straight west, so shouldn't get lost in the process."_

"U-understood."

With Yamato's flank speed only reaching 27 knots, reaching the designated point for the training waters would take Yamato about 30 minutes, so she said _"feel free to get to know about your weapons systems"_ to Yamato and diverted her attention to the other two transfer ships.

There was no elevator on the elevated structure overseeing the dock atop the armory, so the admiral along with her current secretary had to make her way down through the stairs, and for her who was not very athletic, she cursed the existence of staircases.

By the time she got down to the first floor where the armory is, she wheezed as she bent her torso, desperately gasping for air. The tower was considerably high, and although not as much as climbing it, going down the stairs still require stamina to hold oneself back from simply rolling down the steps and breaking some bones. It wouldn't be funny for a commander to get injured or even die, not in the battlefield, but in descending staircase.

Actually, it might be.

"IT WON'T!"

Her sudden shout shocked Hamakaze who was patting the admiral's back to comfort her.

The armory was quite busy. Not only the two transfer ships were there to get their equipment maintained, the entirety of the Bramble fleet was also there to take care of their own equipment, preparing themselves for the upcoming battle.

She approached Yuubari who was holding Atago's equipment while the two transfer ships waited patiently in front of her. "Hey, how's the maintenance going?" the admiral nonchalantly asked right after regulating her breaths. However, Yuubari's answer seemed obvious judging by her expression.

"Admiral, please look at this." Yuubari stood up from her seat and approached her commander with the gun in her hands. She opened up a compartment inside the gun turret house, specifically Atago's second turret and showed the content to her commander.

As soon as the content was revealed, the strong stench of iron wafted in the air, causing the admiral to recoil, exclaiming _blyat!_

The gun was very much rusty, something neither Yuubari, Akashi, nor the Admiral had ever seen. They had from the beginning enforced very strict maintenance procedures for their equipment so that they don't go to waste breaking down, but even so, they don't believe that the guns _could_ rust, so seeing what Atago brought with her, something mighty wrong must have been going on with Atago's last base.

"There's no telling about the status of the rig itself…at this point I think it's better for her to get whole new rig for her." Said the bothered Yuubari.

"But if that's the case we'll need to construct it first; not to mention the time to calibrate them, it'll take a really long time." The admiral covered her face in response of the intense stench. "You know what, let's use the current rig and renew the rest of the equipment. _Akashi, can you transfer our inventory data to Hamakaze's tablet_?" Finally, the admiral contacted her trusty arsenal manager through her earpiece and requested the document.

 _"Roger roger."_

It's not even five seconds later when Hamakaze's tablet blipped. After thanking Akashi quickly, the admiral asked Hamakaze; "Hamakaze, check if we have spare guns with calibers under 8 inches[1] that the Takao-class can carry."

"We have…some 20 cm 3rd Year-Type Mark I, the old Type A single-mounts[2]."

"Type A? Why the _blin_ are we still keeping that?" the admiral muttered "…it's a shame we can't get her the newest type. Yuubari, if you are to make the newest Mark II in Type E installation, how long would it take?" The admiral turned towards the arsenal assistant and cruiser test-bed Yuubari again.

The light cruiser pondered before trying to count with her fingers although they're still holding onto Atago's rig. "Five days," she replied, "I can make it in two if you want to use the _Admiral's Embrace_ boost." She snickered shamelessly upon giving the suggestion.

"Since when did we have that kind of perverted boost?!"

"I'm also open for _Admiral's Kiss_ as a down payment."

"Oh, come on now." A pinch on the bridge of her nose was all she could muster at the moment. "Jokes aside, can you make it?"

"Of course, I can. I'm merely a test bed in the beginning but I learned a lot you know!" the cruiser responded gleefully. "Also, you shouldn't just dismiss a pretty girl's feeling as a joke you know~ I might hate you for that. Not that I would though."

"Why am I not surprised." Nobody was sure if the admiral replied to Yuubari's statement of being able to create the gun or her statement about her feelings, but the positive Yuubari thought that the reply was meant for both, so she dismissed it. "I'll leave it to you then. Atago?"

"Y-Yes ma'am?"

"I'm sorry but you'll have to use the old Mark I Type A, I hope you don't mind." The admiral tipped her office cap in apology, but Atago got frantic in response.

"P-please, why are you apologizing, if anything I should apologize for making problems…!"

"No, it's kind of our responsibility too for not preparing properly, so let me apologize."

Atago was still disturbed by her new commander's apology but she was worried what would happen if she kept apologizing, so she kept silent, not accepting the apology nor denying it.

"I'll go install the Mark I-A then," Yuubari scrambled for the cannons with Atago's rigs on her arms.

"Ah I forgot to ask about Yamakaze…" muttered the admiral after the engineer's absence.

"U-um, I'm sorry if I cut you," but then the Shiratsuyu-class chose to report herself. "M-my armaments had been restored to functioning condition. Everything is ready miss Admiral…"

"Aah, thank you for the report. I'll check it. Hamakaze?"

"Yes ma'am."

It doesn't take a direct order for Hamakaze to understand that the admiral asked for the tablet. As soon as she got it, the admiral immediately checked for Yamakaze's specs.

She was still armed with stock weapons; a set of Type 3 Naval Guns model A chambering 12.7 cm ammunitions, but that's about it. There are still spaces on her rig (and her ship) for them to install additional equipment.

"Any preferences you want for your equipments?"

Yamakaze's expression was shocked momentarily as if confused why the admiral would ask her, but she replied nevertheless.

"I-if possible ones that are focusing on anti-air capabilities." Her response seemed a bit peculiar for the admiral who inadvertently lifted an eyebrow in response.

"Reason being?" asked the admiral for clarification.

"U-um…judging from her gun layouts, miss Yamato's biggest weakness is her anti-air system which are impressive in itself, but lacks effective range…s-so if our fleet has miss Yamato on our side, I plan to leave surface combat to her while I protect her from air raids." Yamakaze put her tiny arm in front of her chest as an attempt to calm down her breathing and rapid heartbeat as she explained her tactics to her new commander. "A-also if I may be so rude…I would also prefer to install a concentrated anti-air emplacement…if I may…" She stuttered in the end, which tripped her off of her determination and leading her to retract her final sentence.

But the admiral laughed heartily in response.

"Well done!" she exclaimed, "Good job for thinking your way through this and planning a tactic beforehand!" the admiral felt proud. She hadn't known what to expect from the new ships but seeing the nervous Yamakaze planned things up thus far overjoys the admiral from the bottom of her heart. "But you should really discuss that with your teammate there, you have a plan too, haven't you?"

"Eh?"

The admiral finished her reply while nudging her head towards the other transfer ship.

"You have something on your mind, right?"

The heavy cruiser without her armaments hesitated as usual, but then she replied.

"Y-yes…I thought of including Maya as our teammate…she has adequate anti-air capability and decent surface firepower to escort miss Yamato on the training battle." Atago said, scratching her cheek in hesitation.

"Good thought, Atago," commended the admiral "but it's not good to just rely on one ship for an entire fleet's anti-air defense. Remember, although it's great to center your fleet on Yamato, but she is _not_ the fleet."

"U-understood…"

They were nervous for the fact that in however long they had been in their previous bases, this is the first time that they had ever done a strategic discussion, and they're really both excited and nervous about it.

"Either way, I think Yamakaze is right to have an anti-air capability just in case, but a whole concentrated emplacement is too overkill. Besides, judging how big the emplacement is going to be so large that it had to replace one torpedo launchers." She scrolled the tablet in her hand, it looks like she's looking for a suitable equipment for Yamakaze. The two transfers did not understand what the admiral meant by her last sentence though, because of course it would. "Anyways, I'll procure you a 10 cm high-angle gun set, let's see…okay, your guns are usually set up on 2 two double mounts and one single mount, so I'll replace everything with double mounts."

"A set…?" asked Yamakaze, tilting her head cutely.

"It's a set with Anti-Air Fire detector" Hamakaze said, but as Yamakaze immediately showed a troubled face, she immediately cut in "don't worry, we have a lot of those developed since there are a lot of light ships to equip them."

"That, and a set of quadruple Type 93 torpedo mounts as well as a set of triple 25 mm Anti-Air batteries." The admiral largely ignored the exchange while she kept scrolling on her tablet, her sharp eyes skimming through the equipment they had. "Since the Bramble fleet doesn't consist of any submarines, I think we should skip through depth charges."

By the time Yamakaze silently nodded to the admiral's suggestion, Yuubari was back.

"I installed the Mark I-A cannons on Atago's rigs ma'am!" she reported gleefully.

The admiral peered at the cruiser with praising eyes that said _as expected of Yuubari_ , but there's a tinge of dissatisfaction in her eyes the moment she looked at the rig. She was a woman of many words, so she expressed it; "Single cannon mounts don't have any aesthetic feeling at all, do they?"

"I kind of get what you mean," Yuubari concurred, "I'll get right on developing more of the later versions."

"I'll leave it to you," the admiral nodded. "Well then, let's arm up Atago this time, shall we? What kind of build would you like?"

"I-if possible, ones that focuses on surface combat, mainly torpedoes," Atago felt that it would be futile to ignore her new commander's advances by more questions, so she tried making the most of it. "I plan to make a long fight that stretches into the night as well, so if I may I would also like to have Star…I mean, searchlight equipped."

"It's okay, I'll procure you some Star Shells," said the admiral, "searchlights are too dangerous these days, and if all else possible I'd like all of you to receive as little damage as possible."

 _If thou_ _gaze_ _long_ _into_ _an_ _abyss_ _, the_ _abyss_ _will also_ _gaze_ _into_ _thee,_ or so Nietzsche said. As a ship spots its target with the searchlight to make its target more visible for allied ships to shoot at, said ship will also be a floating target as the enemy ships are also able to see her.

Meanwhile star shells are rather different that it's shot into the sky without a trace and then explode into a slowly descending incandescent light, illuminating the enemy ships without revealing their position.

Though safe, there are several other downsides.

For example, unlike searchlights, star shells are expendable. The navy would need to keep producing it or else they will run out, so to keep up on the demand of the ship girls' night battles, the admiral had to dedicate a section of the arsenal to produce star shells of varying calibers.

Furthermore, though it's less of a concern, Star Shells are…well, _shells_. It occupies room in the ship's magazine, thus reducing overall space for regular ammunition. Regular star shells burn for approximately 60 seconds, which is considered short for prolonged battle, so even with 100 shells loaded onto the ship, it wouldn't be enough to sustain a two-hour fight.

Sure, the whole fleet could share the burden by having let's say 100 shells for each ship, which totals in 600 shells that could theoretically sustain them 10 hours of night battle. However, remember that most of the times, ships don't stay in formation during the whole battle, and requested target locations for the star shells might be outside the firing range of the ships with the star shells ready, or the firing angle could not be achieved by them. Not to mention the cost it would put on the navy as a whole if for every battle the ships are to be equipped and expend 600 of those star shells at once; it could cause the admiral to have a stroke.

Therefore, the ships were mostly loaded with about 50 shells, and they, or the admiral who's commanding them, had to tactically choose when and where to shoot the limited numbers of star shells to make them count.

"Alright, that'll do. I also set up some quadruple Long Lance launchers for you", said the admiral, "what's your preference in seaplanes? Or do you not prefer to use them at all?"

It would take a bit of time, but Atago's catapults can be replaced by smaller-caliber secondary guns or even minor torpedo turrets if so she chose, but Atago felt that it'll be a waste to do so, so she still chooses to keep her catapults. She, however, wasn't sure of what to take with her. Honestly, she felt that anything would do because she didn't want to ask for too much, so she asked her commander.

"W-what do you think I should use, m-miss admiral?"

"Well judging by your battle strategy, I can recommend two types; night recon flying boat E11A, to reinforce your night battle capability, or fighter floatplanes, which we have…A6M2-N and…N1K1, why do we still have this?!"

As usual, the admiral tends to retort what she said herself like a crazy person.

Both choices are extreme measures for either day or night battle.

The Nakajima A6M2-N is a fighter/bomber/interceptor floatplane, which would be very useful in guarding the fleet against air raids during the day where they will be most effective. Meanwhile, it would be unnecessary to send them out at night to guard them as the Bramble Fleet's carrier will be useless during the night, or provide spotting support while the E11A can do it better.

On the other hand, the E11A can provide superb night time spotting, but will remain mostly useless during the day due to its relatively lower flying speed and its lack of armaments to retaliate against attacks, compared to their conventional reconnaissance seaplane which is the E13A, currently equipped with Air-Surface radars. The admiral and the folks in R&D are discovering possibilities to develop the E13A1b-S, which is a night version of the radar-equipped E13A, but the end is still yet to be within sight, so the E11A is still the best equipment that the navy can provide.

"So what do you say?"

"…" The heavy cruiser explored the possibilities ahead of her, taking into account her allies in her fleet as well as their armaments to see how the battle will go. Thus, after a minute, she chose her answer. "the flying boat, please."

"With choice," the admiral agreed, "alright, Yuubari, please put Atago's armament into the auto-equip machine and everything will be ready."

"Understood, I'll get right on it!"

Yuubari is a good girl, she immediately went to execute her orders without delay.

"For the rest of you, get to the deployment dock and prepare to sail to the firing range," she said. The admiral and the others had introduced them to the deployment docks yesterday as they got their armaments stripped, so they shouldn't get lost. "I'll talk to you in the sea, good hunting."

* * *

[1] 203.2 mm in non-retarded measurement. Washington Naval Treaty limits cruisers' gun caliber to be below 8 inches, which led the world powers to develop guns for "treaty cruisers", challenging the limit of the treaty (i.e. 3rd Year Type Mark II, which is exactly 203.2 mm in caliber)

[2] This is the 7.9-inch caliber. Special note here because Type A Mark I was rarely used except for Furutaka-class heavy cruiser before she was refitted to mount three Mark II Type C (20.3 cm twin turrets) variant on 1st of April 1937 (Kako's refit took place on 4th of July 1936). Type A Mark I is also installed on Akagi (1927) and Kaga (1930).


	5. Basic Training

_Author's Note: dialogues in italics are spoken through the radio, I hope that's enough to describe which character's point of view is currently used._

 _Author's Reminder: Once again, Port side is the left side and Starboard side is the right side._

* * *

Atago and Yamakaze's speed is approximately 30% faster than that of Yamato's, so it should be of no surprise that they managed to catch up with the superbattleship even after their late deployment and their confusion of the new controls. The weather was fair, and the sea was calm, so they had no difficulties reaching their set waypoint. Yamakaze and Atago as the lighter ships had a close call where they almost collided into each other due to their controls, but they managed to pull through and avoid collision by a hair's breadth.

"W-Waypoint reached," Yamato said exasperatedly as a representative, pressing the button on her radio to contact the base. They stopped and parked abreast just by the side of a small island with two varyingly high mountains on it. It seemed to be such a mystery how such large mountains could fit on such small structure, but then again, there was Ushio.

 _"Copy. Kashima should be on standby around there. Your radar should be able to detect her."_ The admiral replied through the radio, making a static sound through the earpieces attached to the ship ladies' ears.

 _"Or the radio,"_ said another voice, _"Remember that you can detect enemies with radar or direct line sight, but you can find teammates using radio frequencies, and your friend's location will appear on your HUD as well. If something appears in your radar, you should also feel something like you saw something in your peripheral vision."_

The three, trying to test out their new knowledge, checked out their HUD on the map displayed on their wrist-mounted device. They found their own identity marked as a blue spot on the two-dimensional map along with their bearings and current speed. If they scrolled and changed the display, they could also see the combat capability of their ship, but since they won't need it yet, they virtually ignored that menu.

And when they were looking on the map, a new signal appeared behind them.

"And thus, here I am."

"PYAA!?"

The signal appeared right behind Yamakaze, and by the time she realized that, the ship had already crept up right behind her. Unknown what for, the Katori-class cruiser honked her ship horn that sounds louder than a feedback on a band concert sound system.

"Light/Training cruiser Kashima, at your service!" The girl on top of the forward deck lifted her arm high before turning it into a salute. "Sorry for surprising you, I wanted to make an impactful entrance."

 _"Careful not to actually impact them with your hull, I saw you almost crash your prow onto Yamakaze's rear."_ The commander's remark hit the nail on the head, so the Katori-class little sister could only laugh wryly. _"Either way, please brief the girls on the training."_

Kashima plopped her fist onto her other palm, silently thinking _oh, right!_

"Anyways, once again, I'm Kashima, I will be your training coordinator for today," she said gleefully, "our objective today is to get you used to the gun system since it seems like you haven't been uh…using this system in your previous base." Kashima cruised her way around Yamakaze, somehow choosing to go past between Yamakaze and Yamato in the middle of the formation, but since there was ample distance between them, Kashima didn't have any difficulties. "I've set several waypoints away from the island. Waypoint Alpha is for Yamakaze, waypoint Beta is for Atago, and waypoint Charlie is for Yamato. Please go to your designated waypoints and standby."

The waypoints are set according to the ships' effective firing range, so Yamakaze, 9 kilometers away from the island, is closer to the island compared to Atago, who is about 12 kilometers away, and still closer to the island than Yamato, who is over 20 kilometers away.

While the three took up position, Kashima herself took up position somewhere on the side where she had clear line of sight of all three transfer ships as well as the island. It wasn't thanks to Yamato's speed that it takes quite a long time to get into position. Yamato herself apologized more than 3 times during the cruise.

As they arrived onto the waypoints, Kashima relayed her next instructions.

"Alright, let's start with basic fire training," she said, "by now you should realize that the turrets of your ships will rotate according to where the guns on your rig is pointing." The shipgirls' inhuman sight allowed Kashima to look at the three as well as the island without any need for telescopic devices.

The three girls visibly attempted rotating their cannons as a warmup,

 ** _BLAM_**

 _"PYAA!?"_

but Yamakaze accidentally fired one of her main cannons.

"W-well…I guess you could learn how to reload," Kashima scratched her cheek. "you need to open the turrets in your rig and insert your next shells, you can grab them from your pockets or some compartments on your rig."

Slowly and gingerly, the Shiratsuyu-class took a shell from one of several pockets in her uniform and inserted two shells into her 10 cm guns. The guns on her ship clanked loudly as the guns are reloaded.

"Alright, now let's start with something simple; just shoot anywhere on the island," at that point, Kashima turned her torso towards the island that was directly ahead of her ship, effectively pointing the guns on her rig towards the island, "here I'll give an example."

She adjusted her aim, but since there's only one turret that can point toward the island, the rear cannon is kept unmoving.

Then she pulled the trigger.

Orange flowers bloomed on both the ship's turret and the rigs on Kashima's waist, followed by dark smoke puffing out. Two projectiles launched through the two 14-cm guns, flew on a wide arc and landed with an explosion on one of the mountains.

"Don't worry about the island, it's uh…partially artificial."

 _What do you mean 'partially'?_ the three girls' eyes asked.

 _"Wait, wait, in the first place, how do you…uh…"_ It seemed like for Yamato who had a lot of equipment on board, she still had issues figuring out what is what, so albeit she already figured out how to aim her guns, she still doesn't know how to fire them. Even as Kashima looked at her through her telescopic sight, her guns and catapults are rotating around aimlessly as the Yamato herself was fumbling around with her rig.

"L-let's just ignore the other armaments for now. Focus on your main guns and try firing them." Kashima was a bit overwhelmed since she hasn't been teaching others how to use the "new system" for a long time.

 _"B-but how do you fire them?"_ This time Atago who was also still confused asked as well."

Finally, the question that is hard to answer.

"Uh…let me answer your question with another question," This time, Kashima seemed to be used to the question, "How do you fire your rig?"

 _"…"_

 _"…"_

 _"…"_

 ** _BLAM_**

 _"Who was that?"_

 ** _SPLASH_**

 _"PYAAA!"_

This time it was Atago who accidentally fired her main cannon and unfortunately but fortunately sent her shells towards Yamakaze's direction but missing her just by a dozen of meters or so.

In the end, knew how to shoot their rigs, but when they were asked nobody really knows how to explain.

 _"Uhh, girls, just a tip about gun safety; never point your gun at someone while it's loaded."_ It was the admiral who issued the warning through the radio after seeing the silly but potentially dangerous exchange. _"I guess it's my fault as well that I loaded your armaments before you get used to it."_

"Alright, let's do what she says before our hulls become Swiss cheese…or a donut, in that matter" said Kashima, specifically remembering Yamato on her last remark, "now just for safety and objective purposes, aim your guns toward the island and try firing just one of your main cannons."

 _"U-understood."_

This time the three ships slowly and carefully aimed their guns towards the island, making subtle adjustments to the rotation and firing angle. Because all three of them were facing the island directly, all but Yamakaze could fire their no. 1 and 2 turrets towards the island, while Yamakaze can only shoot her first.

Yamakaze first tried shooting. It wasn't an unfamiliar sensation both because she braced herself before firing and she had once felt the feedback from her gun accidentally, so she wasn't surprised when the powder explodes and propels two shells the size of her fist towards the island.

The shells loaded are that of high explosive shells, though with less explosive load contained. Therefore, they explode upon making contact with the ground, but it wasn't that big of an explosion.

"Good hit, you're getting the hang of it," Kashima sent a casual comment in the meantime.

Atago followed after Kashima's report, sending two shells, one from each turret. This time, the explosion from the impact was bigger than Yamakaze's, solely because her caliber is bigger than Yamakaze's.

"Impact confirmed, good job."

Lastly, it was Yamato's turn.

She salvoed her entire two cannons worth of 6 shots with a devastating blast that even Kashima who's relatively far away from her could feel the shockwave beat her chest.

 _"Hauuu!"_

 _"W-what was that?"_

"Don't mind it, our admiral does that sometimes…" That was the admiral having unnecessary pleasure from listening to the sound of massive cannon fire. Listening to her reaction left Kashima a bit irritated since she was sure that the admiral now would pay more attention to Yamato more than anyone else, and it's not like she's getting enough attention herself.

Because of the admiral being weird, Kashima missed the impact of Yamato's shells to confirm, but apparently, she doesn't need to. The smoke from the impact and the crater was still very much visible even if she missed them.

"Good hit," the cruiser said with admiration "alright, let's repeat this process to get you used to the fire-reload cycle as effectively as possible. Since I don't think we have very much time, let's train your reload time after a full broadside salvo. I'll give you an example; for this, you all have to maneuver your ship so that you can point all of your guns to one point."

 _"But remember not to expose your broadside to the enemy, otherwise you won't believe how fast I'm going to have to send you back to the port"_ added the admiral.

By the time the admiral finished, the light cruiser already turned starboard and got in position and pointed her two turrets toward the island.

"So first you fire your salvo," Kashima immediately released four shells from two turrets, "and then you immediately start reloading the way you like it. Personally, I do it like this;"

To reload the gun, first you need to eject the shell casing before you can insert a new shell.

Kashima turned the turrets on her rigs in her back to face upwards. She reached back towards her turrets and opened its rear, and since it faced upwards, the sizzling hot shell casings dropped down to her deck. After thus, she rotated her rig turrets back and inserted the new shells from the open turrets. With quick efficiency, she closed the turrets with her hands, which in turn creates loud clanking noises in her ships' cannons before rotating it back to her original targets and fired a whole salvo one more time.

"Like that. Try doing that several times just to get yourself familiar with it." Kashima took a deep breath and heaved a light sigh right after firing. She then casually proceeded to reload her cannon just to be at the ready.

 _"Remember, just try to do your best as much as possible. I understand that sometimes everyone can mess up in the heat of the battle; we all do,"_ said the admiral, _"but the purpose of the training is to reduce the number that it happens, so do your best."_

 _"U-understood! I'll do my best!"_ It was Yamakaze who first replied energetically. It was almost unbelievable that she could sound so excited while she looked very nervous the previous day. It's not like the admiral doesn't like it; if anything, it emphasizes how she had the spirit in wanting to be useful, and the admiral was impressed.

Thus, the firing training began. Several explosive shots reverberate in the background as Kashima monitored the three in case something happens. Unknowingly for the three, there are also several cruisers and battleships on the outer perimeter of the area guarding the area, so Kashima's job wasn't to protect them in case something is incoming, but rather as someone to report and assist the three ships if something catastrophic happens to their ships, especially putting into account the shape of Atago's rigs which are subpar in performance and condition.

The three ships communicate between each other through the radio, and Kashima acknowledged that the three would also start trying to maneuver themselves so that they can practice shooting while moving. They weren't bad at doing so, since their target is literally the broad side of a mountain, so Kashima tried marking some spots of the mountain with star shells and asked the three to try shooting them in quick succession. They struggled, but they seem to be doing quite well.

About a minute later, the admiral called _"Speaking of which, Kashima,"_ she said, _"Houshou-san is inbound to assist with anti-air training, so stay sharp."_

By then, another transmission came to her radio; it was the soothing voice of the fleet's mother ship. _"Hammerhead Actual to Trainer Two, I'm inbound to the designated location and I will arrive in one minute."_

"Trainer two copies," Kashima replied swiftly before turning her attention to the three new ships. "Girls, let's begin the anti-aircraft training this time. Please RV at the designated waypoint as soon as possible."

The waypoint is about 10 kilometers west from the island, so without question, the three ships immediately went for it. Again, they tried parking abreast from each other to stand by with considerable struggle to avoid collision.

 _"Hammerhead Actual, in position,"_ and meanwhile they did that, the mothership got into position herself.

"Copy that Hammerhead Actual; standby," Kashima replied. After that, she switched the transmission towards the three girls again; "Okay, this is almost like a scenario battle. Miss Houshou, with the callsign _Hammerhead Actual,_ is on standby ninety kilometers directly in front of you. She'll be sending aircrafts to try and bomb or strafe the island behind you, and your job is to use anything in your disposal to prevent them from doing so" Kashima explained with two fingers on her ear to transmit what she said to the new girls. "We'll start easy, then we'll crank up the difficulties as we go. Don't worry, the aircrafts damaged can easily be restored with bauxite so do your best!"

 _"R-roger that"_ , Atago replied.

 _"By the way, Atago,_ " cut the commander, _"For the purpose of this training, we've temporarily mounted the interceptor floatplane for you, so use that to your disposal. Ah, but don't worry, we'll fit you with the flying boat tomorrow."_

 _"Will we be using callsigns too tomorrow?"_ Yamato asked.

 _"Good question,"_ the admiral said, _"Here's the thing, we always used callsigns for live missions, but although we tried our hardest to use callsigns during practice, we somehow always revert back to calling names. Just look at the previous fic."_

Seriously? Again?

 _"So for now, I guess just as usual, try using callsigns as best as you can, as for what callsign you want us to address you, for now, you can pick, since your assigned fleet isn't ready yet."_

The three girls looked like they were confused as they looked at each other in the distance, but in the end the three, represented by Yamato, came to a consensus and asked back.

 _"We…would like your input in that…I hope we aren't asking too much."_

 _"None at all,"_ replied the admiral nonchalantly, excogitating a suggestion; _"Let's see, Yamato would be_ Katana One, _Atago would be_ Waffle Three _, and Yamakaze shall be_ Mint Seven _, how about that?"_

"…"

Kashima's breath got stuck on her throat listening to her commander's suggestion, and it was clear from the radio that the three on the other side reacted pretty much similarly. It was not out of disappointment, however, as evident on Yamato's tone on her question afterwards.

 _"M-may we ask the reason behind those callsign naming ma'am…?"_ she asked.

 _"U-um…pretty simple actually. Yamato's is a Katana because you're graceful yet deadly. Atago reminds me of a brand of Wafers, but since Atago for me feels…gentler than wafers I went with something that sounds similar which is Waffles. As for Yamakaze, your bright green hair and your refreshing personality led me to call you Mint…the numbers are complete random."_ The admiral continued without paying heed to anyone who might be listening to the radio and caused the three new ships' (and Kashima's) cheeks to be dyed red, although it's a different reason for Kashima. _"D-did you not like it after all?"_

"M-miss admiral, what about me? What would you personally name me? Y-you know, aside from _Trainer Two_ …" before the three ships could answer, Kashima cuts in.

 _"Mercury One_ , _"_ she said, _"because you're unique and pretty to look at, and you're very useful for the good of everyone."_

"Hauuu~ You're always so good with words—"

 _" **SHOULDN'T WE START THE TRAINING SOON?"**_

"Hyi?!"

 _"Hmm, that's right, we shouldn't delay this any further."_

It almost felt like ice started growing from the earpieces of the girls and stabbed them right in the eardrum as Houshou's voice crept through it eerily. Unfortunately, the admiral, dense as a brick compressed with a hydraulic press, failed to notice this and would still require an outside help to defuse the situation, and it was Akashi who was the one with the initiative to do so.

 _"W-well then…w-what would you call miss Houshou then, miss admiral?"_ asked Akashi from right next to the admiral

 _"Do you even need to ask? I'd call her mine."_

The ice immediately breaks, and the mothership audibly melted, unfortunately delaying the anti-aircraft training for about fifteen minutes. Surprisingly, the repair ship and the training cruiser wasn't as much discouraged at the admiral's answer, but rather that answer got them imagining if the admiral would say that to them when the time comes.


	6. Interlude: Night Scramble

Depending on the region, summer nights can provide different experiences compared to day. In some area, the nights can still be as hot as day despite the sun being absent, and in some like the Sahara Desert, it could reach 50 degrees centigrade during midday while falling below zero degrees at night.

But since the naval base is not located in the Sahara Desert, the admiral could only heave a sigh of relief and praise the Nine Divines…not that they're in charge of this realm.

Nevertheless, it was rather chilly in the naval base area, so the admiral couldn't just sleep naked and expect not to catch a cold, so she donned a layer of pajamas as she prepped for bed. Her windows were opened though she strictly closed the anti-bug net to keep the bugs at bay, so she could enjoy the natural air conditioner without getting her skin colored polka-dot in the morning.

She was a woman of Japanese taste, but she still chose a spring bed rather than a futon in her very much Japanese-styled room as her choice for respite, though she did have some spare futons set up for someone such as the silver-haired girl sleeping next to her bed.

The admiral picked up a notebook from a small table next to the bed as she dropped her behind on the latter and checked the contents illuminated by the reading lights from the table.

"Nothing left to do for today," she said to herself as she ensures everything listed in the book had been crossed. She also did a minor checkup on herself like twisting her now unbraided hair that was slightly damp and smells like roses, indicating that she had took a bath, as well as licking her teeth to ensure she didn't miss a spot when she brushed her teeth earlier, "alright, time for bed I suppose."

She closed the book with a clap and put it where she found it before tucking herself between the springy bed and the fluffy blanket that was comfortably cooled by the gentle night breeze. Before she forgot, she also took off the beautiful ring from her finger, giggling as she abandoned the position of an admiral and turned into a love-struck maiden looking at her beloved's proof of love.

Ayumi gently set it aside next to the notebook and rolled on her bed, wrapping her tender body with the blanket.

"I'm excited for tomorrow," she thought, closing her eyes gently, "the three exceeded my expectations in situation assessment and managing strategies…I just hope the three ships they chose can work well together." She turned off the light, leaving the room dyed midnight blue from the bright moon along with its reflections on the sea.

Ayumi sighed softly. Waves crashing onto the pier and the rocks outside her room was all that she could hear. With that sound in accompaniment, strength leaves the young commander's body, and before long, her shallow breathing was all that's left of the young girl that is Ashikaga Ayumi.

* * *

"…Admiral…?"

"Freeze."

Someone was there.

The admiral reflexively snatched her trusty sidearm from the bed and pointed toward whatever's in front of her. The moonlight was shining brightly, but it wasn't enough to allow the admiral to see what's in the shadow of the building. She did, however, felt something nuzzled on the muzzle of her P08 as she tried to reach for the light switch.

"Hya?!"

And when she did and flicked the lights back on, the girl on top of her bed flinched.

Not because of the gun, but because of her getup.

"Y-Yamakaze?" The admiral asked inadvertently, as if doubting her eyes. "W-what's with that…?!"

The ship that was on her knees in front of her were wearing a piece of clothing no one would thought she would wear. To explain it simply, it was merely a series of frilly ribbons that didn't cover any of a girl's important parts, but rather serves as an anchor for thin, transparent fabric that made most of its structure.

"I…I've come for…servicing you."

It doesn't take a genius to understand that even though that was what Yamakaze stated, her heart is yelling at her to run.

It was unnatural to say the least, but nevertheless it was a sight to behold. A girl with glistening green hair, covering her chest bashfully, gazing into her new commander's eyes with tears in hers. Normally, regardless of gender, one would lose their mind upon seeing such sight and possibly proceed to push down the girl with vigor.

Likewise, Ayumi was stunned. She unintentionally dropped her gun to the bed and rushed forward, grabbing the little girl by the shoulders tightly. The destroyer in question could only close her eyes tightly, squeezing the moisture that was built up from the mix of nervousness and embarrassment.

But Ayumi's question was what's different.

"Who did this to you?!"

Her tone contained anger and a tinge of sadness. She gripped the destroyer's exposed shoulders with enough force to vent her anger but just barely strong enough not to hurt the poor girl.

"Tell me who told you to do this, I'll put a harsh punishment for whoever that is!"

"N-no…I have…I have to do this…otherwise…otherwise I'll…!" Yamakaze herself doesn't seem like she dared to continue her sentence in fear of what it is and what it means, so she did nothing but to proceed forward on all fours, inching her lovely face closer to the admiral's. The babydoll that Yamakaze wore did little to no effort to support her breasts and instead leaving it swaying gently behind the thin, flower-patterned fabric as the destroyer pressed forward with an expression of sorrow and humiliation.

The admiral herself wasn't a woman of no virtue. She was shocked, but her morality is the primary emotion that drives her to recoil backwards to avoid Yamakaze's advances. But even still, as the gentle smell of a girl mixed with the sweet smell of soap and shampoo drifted in the air, it's just a matter of time until the admiral's integrity crumble.

 _Wasn't Atago the one reported to be abused sexually in her previous base? Then why is Yamakaze be the one acting like this?_ Such question passed through the admiral's mind like a storm, but the answer to the question could wait for later. For now, her cute subordinate needs to be stopped, and it needs to be done fast.

"Yamakaze, stop."

Thus, she took a gamble. Two fingers were all she used to stop Yamakaze's advances, pressing her index and middle finger on Yamakaze's soft lips, inching closer as they quiver.

"A…as I thought…you wouldn't want to take me…", said Yamakaze with sorrow even deeper than the Mariana trench, "after all…I'm already defiled and broken…nobody would want me…right?" both her eyes and her head dropped, hanging lifelessly.

But after a long sigh, the admiral was almost brash on her reply, though her voice was soft and gentle, "you idiot," she whispered, "look, hear me out and come here."

"…?" as Yamakaze lifted her head up, she was greeted by her new commander's smile while and both arms are stretched out towards her.

She couldn't believe it; or rather, she doesn't want to. What would happen if she accepted her commander's invitation?

She couldn't possibly be offered happiness. She always felt that she didn't deserve it, that was why she had to face the horror in her previous base.

So what will this be? What kind of punishment could await her behind this gesture so tempting, she unintentionally starts crawling into?

But once she was within the reach of her commander, the outstretched arms circled around Yamakaze's small frame and pulled her closer to her bosom. She thought of resisting, but the admiral's gentle but forceful pull left her arms too weak to resist.

"Think about it more carefully will you? If you catch a cold, how are you going to fight properly tomorrow? Stay still for a while." with quick yet gentle movement, the admiral maneuvered the blanket to cover her exposed skins, all the while pressing the girl onto her bosom.

They settled down, and the admiral heaved a sigh.

Yamakaze was nuzzled gently on the admiral's pillow-like chest, her face confused as she mildly struggled.

"…and that was my order as an admiral," said the commander sternly. However, her tone from there turned gentle. "From this point forward, I'm talking as Ashikaga Ayumi, so whatever I say, it's your choice to listen or to ignore."

Ayumi started stroking Yamakaze's soft locks with her hands.

"I don't know what happened to you in your previous base. It seems that what report that I get is not everything that, if at all, happened to you," she said, tightening her hug on the destroyer "but I just want to let you know, it all doesn't matter."

"…?" Yamakaze slightly shifts her head in Ayumi's embrace, looking up to her with teary eyes.

"The past is the past, and as high of a rank I'm in, I still have no power to change it, and I'm sorry for that,"

"N-no, please…" Yamakaze replied with a sniffle. Slowly but almost steadily, it developed into a sob.

"But here's my point; Yamakaze is Yamakaze for me, and that's enough" Ayumi closed her eyes after a soft sigh, "It's not that I don't care about you, I do. The thing I don't care is your past. It doesn't matter if you're defiled, or you're broken or anything llke that. You're okay now, and that's what I can assure you."

"N-no…you shouldn't so easily accept this indecent me…"

"Oh, lay it off with that self-deprecating words, will you?" said Ayumi nonchalantly but sternly, "Besides, you're telling me to not so easily accept you, but I already did. The moment you stepped your feet into our port, you are already under my care. The moment Ooyodo inputted your data to our system, you are my unit, my subordinate, and automatically, my family, and nothing can change that so easily."

 _Family…_

"So you don't have to do this anymore. It's not that I don't see you as charming, it's the opposite, actually," The admiral chuckled wryly in that reply before continuing "B-but it's kind of troubling since…you know…I have a wife, so I just can't accept your advances."

Yamakaze continued sobbing in Ayumi's chest as the young admiral continues, but she chuckled in response to her CO's last sentence.

"If someone had defiled you before, I'll bring it to light, and I'll protect you in the meantime. You just have to do your best and enjoy yourself," the admiral smiled again, caressing the crying Yamakaze in her arms, "if you don't want to believe it and you can't do it, don't take it from me, take it as an order from your admiral, okay?"

"R…really?"

"That's an order, remember?"

As Yamakaze looked up, her admiral's expression was so nonchalant, calm, and at the same time, warm that it looked unreal for Yamakaze who went through a lot. She didn't notice before, but it seemed that the admiral had also been wiping her tears off her face with her slender fingers in the meantime.

Maybe this was it. Maybe this was the beginning of something she had been yearning from long ago. Maybe this time, she can believe that not everything she faced must be insufferable.

Ayumi stroked her subordinate's head again, and she dropped her head back onto Ayumi's soft bosom in a weak, yet determined movement.

Time passed by unnoticeably as the destroyer's sobbing calmed down after who knows how long. The admiral wasn't paying attention to anything but the girl, so she didn't as much care about the time until she grew sleepy. Even still, the caressed her head continually, saying _there, there_ every now and then while making sure the girl stayed warm under the blanket. The admiral was at least sensitive enough to understand that nothing more needs to be said, so she stayed quiet the whole time she calmed Yamakaze down.

"M…miss Admiral?" Yamakaze spoke in a delirious tone.

"Just for tonight, you can call me by my name," said Ayumi, "I also want to take care of you as a person, not as a commander, so yeah."

"T-then…miss Ayumi?"

"What is it?"

Yamakaze seemed hesitant in whatever next words she wanted to say, so she started by saying humble formalities, "I-if you are alright with me being selfish…" the destroyer paused to assess the admiral's change of expressions, and seeing no major changes, she grit her teeth and asked away.

"…can I call you mama?"

By then, the change of expression was apparent, but it was not a hostile one. Ayumi herself didn't ask why, but rather, "W-well…I have a wife, so what are you going to do about that…? Calling two people _mama_ might be a little…"

"Then…how about papa?"

"…I just made it worse for myself, didn't I?"

Yep.

Ayumi groaned silently to not make Yamakaze think she's bothering her with the request, because clearly, she's not. "…Ah hell. I already said I'll be taking care of you anyways, so if it seems like that, then I guess I don't mind…I think."

"Hehe…pa…pa…" Yamakaze replied weakly with a hint of spoiled attitude. The calming of Yamakaze seemed to run on a momentum. Not only that she relaxed from the tense mood she had earlier, her breathing also slowed down until what's left of her was only a shallow, relaxed breathing of her sleep.

"You're such a handful, aren't you?" Ayumi could only chuckle upon seeing the innocent sleeping face of the girl and wiped the remaining tears off the swollen corner of the destroyer's eyes without any means to disturb her. "I guess she just wanted someone she can really call a family."

"Shall I do something about this, miss commander?"

"It's fine, Lu. Just for today."

"…I am dissatisfied but…as you wish."

"You can go back to sleep as well."

"Only if it's next to you."

"My god."


	7. A Problematic Prep Phase

The next day begins with a heart-rending scream, a fire alarm, an air-raid, police, and ambulance siren and several cannon shots echoing in the naval base.

* * *

It was a brisk late morning when the admiral arrived at the meeting point for the two fleets' training battle somewhere in the docks. The lady that arrived with exasperated expression was followed by two ships; a fuming mother ship clinging to the lady's arm and a fidgeting destroyer walking gingerly behind her.

To summarize what happened in the past several hours or so, the mother ship was about to wake up her beloved husband…until she found her sleeping with an indecent-looking destroyer along with a silver-haired girl.

It's not like Houshou herself never slept with her husband, she always does whenever she's the admiral's secretary, but other than that, no one was to sleep in the admiral's quarters, though with the exception of her personal weapon which were supposed to sleep on a different bed.

Either way, although the mothership listened to the explanation made by the two concerned parties, it was still difficult for her to accept it, so the admiral was still blamed in the end.

Yamakaze, the perpetrator herself, asked for lenience for the admiral, saying _"please don't be too angry at papa"_ which dealt an unexpectedly massive mental damage for both the admiral and Houshou.

The admiral arrived in the middle of a group of shipgirls standing by. The Bramble fleet was there, all ready to go to the docks to et their rigs installed, while Yamato, Atago and Yamakaze who just arrived was standing next to three others who they invited aa a part of their team

"Alright, let's begin today's briefing," sighed the admiral amidst the land-ward wind blowing violently. "As I had stated, the schedule for today is a mock battle between the Bramble fleet and the newly formed fleet, which, effective immediately, will be codenamed the _Basking Fleet_ " The admiral pulls out her trusty tablet from its holster strapped to her waist by a belt.

 _Click_

The six members of the Bramble fleet stood at the ready, listening closely to the briefing said by their commander, but the opposite team, the three of the Basking fleet, was a little lost.

"The members of the Bramble fleet will be the flagship Shouhou, Battleship Hyuuga, Heavy Cruiser Ashigara and Kako, destroyer Ushio, and Aviation Cruiser Mogami." As the admiral called, the mentioned ships threw a quick salute. "The temporary members of the Basking fleet will be as you see in front of you, so the complete member will be as follows; the flagship Yamato, Heavy Cruiser Atago, Destroyer Yamakaze, followed by the temporary members; Anti-air heavy cruiser Maya, torpedo cruiser Kitakami, and destroyer Hamakaze. Get yourself to know each other, yes?"

""""""We look forward to deepen our skills with you.""""""

The six ladies of the Bramble fleet gracefully bowed as they exclaimed, but in contrary, the opposing fleet did so hesitatingly.

"It'll be an honor to once again work with you, miss Yamato," Hamakaze was the one who bowed again towards the superbattleship who just raised her head.

"Yes," Yamato replied, "This time I'll be sure to protect you. All of you."

"That should be my line," Hamakaze chortled briefly, "but either way, the commander would certainly bring us back in one piece"

"You seem like you trust the commander a lot," said Yamato, hugging herself for some reason.

"I don't just seem like I trust her, I do trust her," the destroyer blushed as she answered.

Meanwhile, the other ships on the new Basking fleet was also having conversation. The energetic Maya was especially pumped because she's able to both sortie with her sister as well as having some action, under the commander's direct order at that.

"Feeling a bit out of place, Kitakami?" Finally, the admiral approached the one ship that seemed confused. She was standing by herself a couple of meters away from the group while fiddling with her personal phone. The admiral couldn't help but to wonder what she was doing in her smartphone that the ships normally use only for combat, so she went and checked up on her.

"Ah, good morning, admiral," greeted Kitakami as she lifted her gaze from her phone; her eyes brightened as she did. "I was checking up on my torpedo tubes. Having to take care of that much at once is a big hassle you know?[1]"

"Okay, what's wrong? Anything I can do to help?" asked the admiral while she put her hand on her waist. She wondered what might be the issue since other ships even those with heavy specialized armaments (i.e. Maya or even Yamato) did not have Kitakami's concern.

"I'm quite picky when it comes to the torpedoes I launch…you know, some of them might blow up. I don't want to be called _Kursk_ you see, especially when I'm loaded with that much torpedoes [2]" Kitakami scoffed.

"Makes sense," the commander agreed, "but that was because it used unstable chemicals right? I'm pretty sure we're fine with ours."

"No harm in staying safe, right?"

"That's true, I'm proud of you."

"Hehehe~"

The admiral nonchalantly petted the Kitakami who in turn squinted her eyes in enjoyment.

"Anyways all hands," the admiral's voice turned to an exclaim, "We will be practicing in the open sea today. It's an area where there is nothing but small rocky islands in it. I choose that area specifically to not restrict you to any cruising angles, but be advised, no islands means no protection against what's coming to you, so remember; pay attention to your radars and/or spotters and don't expose your broadsides, understood?"

The Bramble fleet responded energetically while the opposite fleet except for Maya, Kitakami and Hamakaze nodded silently, trying to hide their nervousness. However, their confusion was still apparent, even more so since no one else was.

"Alright, with that out of the way, get to your designated launching docks, deploy, and get to your starting waypoints," she said sternly, "equip your radio communicator and we'll discuss strategies in the preparation phase in the docks."

 _Click_

Meanwhile,

"There we go. Right this way my admiral." The admiral's legal wife glared at the commander with a dark aura resembling one of the abyssal flagships. Not only that, the admiral's left hand that wasn't holding her tablet was also handcuffed to her wife's.

Meanwhile the charismatic, strong-looking admiral could only "…yes" mutter one simple word as her wife dragged her by the handcuff.

* * *

It took 5 minutes for Hamakaze to explain what led to the admiral's treatment just now to the three confused new ships as they all walked to the drydocks to start preparing for deployment.

"So…you're saying that the admiral snuck herself on board of miss Houshou's ship and commanded from there?" Yamato asked with bewilderment in her face.

"Well…it was mainly our fault too for not noticing any earlier until it was too late," Hamakaze replied almost lackadaisically which surprised the three ships even further. "But honestly, you wouldn't believe how our combat capabilities more than doubled when she's on board. Not only she provides better spotting thanks to her eyes that couldn't miss a single detail even in the pattern of the sea waves, she could also direct our fire with pinpoint accuracy since she can see where the target is relative to our position directly from her position and not only from the data showed on a 2-dimensional map."

 _Wow, not only the ships are capable, but even the commander too…_ Yamato seemed to think. But then again, a radio transmission of what sounded like the admiral crying _"Ueee~ but I wanna ride Yamato~"_ in a very much misleading words and a tone hinting a five-year-old.

From then on, every time the admiral gives briefings to sortieing fleets, someone would cuff her hand and drag her to the command room afterwards to prevent her from sneaking herself into the ships. Despite being true that their combat capabilities increase, it also exposes the admiral, the head of the navy, to greater danger. The past experience of the Hammerhead fleet for example had caused the admiral to be injured albeit lightly even in a practice battle. Who knows what will happen if they were to carry their commander into real battles where they can be sunken for real.

Simply speaking, it's like having a tank commander direct its crew while popping up from the tank hatch. It greatly increases their performance, but the commander himself can get injured by shrapnel, explosions, or even get obliterated by eating a tank shell directly to the chest.

Sometimes it is better to keep your trump card until the very end, and no one in the naval base would ever allow that end to arrive.

So meanwhile the admiral disappeared to the command center with clear disappointment in her eyes and voice, the two teams separated their way to get to their docks and prepared for deployment.

That was when the admiral's voice came sounding from the radio's earpieces.

 _"Alright...what's the strategy today?"_ said the admiral sounding a bit sad still.

"What do you say, miss flagship?" Kitakami asked. She walked down the long way to her own dock while the others stopped one by one in their respective ones.

"I-I'm the flagship…" It would seem that Yamato was not used to the attention nor the responsibility of the flagship, but after thinking that this is the chance for her to prove herself, she steeled her resolve and tried to come up with an idea.

 _"If you're unsure about something, press L1 on your joystick to ask me for advice."_

"U-um… _L1?_ " Not only Yamato, but probably everyone in the naval base was confused about what the hell she was talking about. "A-anyways…I'm thinking that the general gist of our strategy is to hold out as long as possible until night falls, and then we can exercise our main attack."

Yamato is a good girl. She largely ignored the admiral's antics and stayed in topic the best she can.

"And how do we do that?" Asked Maya, "the enemy fleet would surely push to attack as soon as possible because you know…their aerial armaments won't do them any good at night."

Maya was stretching her arms as she said thus, which accentuates the curves of her torso—especially her armpits and chest—as well as transmitting suggestive grunts through the radio that made the admiral feel a bit weird.

 _"That's why we have you, Maya. Your adequate anti-air emplacements as well as the ample addition from both destroyers on your team should provide enough distractions to at least disrupt the planes of their time dive bombing or launching torpedoes."_ Following what the admiral said, Maya seemed excited to be relied upon, causing the corners of her lips to rise. _"If you can shoot them down, that'll be a bonus, but as always, play defensively during the day. Don't rush in for the kills if you're not sure that you'll get it, understood?"_

""""""Understood""""""

After a cracking sound in the radio, the admiral continued. It seemed like she changed the channel. _"Also I think you know this, but don't be reckless. I don't want to suspend another training session because you hurt each other too much."_

 _"Ayye, I don't know about that, command,"_ Kako from the other side of the port chimed in through the radio. _"I mean, the last time someone did that, she became your wife."_

 _"Next time someone goes recklessly into battle like that, they'll be put into house arrest_ _for a week._ " The admiral tried threatening the girls with punishment,

"Neat! That means a weeklong holiday to stay with you!"

 _"Fuck's sake."_

But it seemed to have backfired as Maya cheerfully responded with a chuckle.

The crack sounds again, the channel had been changed from open to a private one directed only to the Basking fleet.

Meanwhile they had the conversation, the ships were in the middle of spawning their ships from the slipway. Akashi who was monitoring them quickly reported the condition of the spawn as they did, and allowed the six to adjust their armaments before they slid down the slipway into the sea.

 _"You may begin system check. Maya can start, then Hamakaze and Kitakami to set an example."_ Said the admiral.

"Roger that. System check, Heavy Cruiser Maya, all green." Maya tightened the straps on her rigs and her wrist-mounted device as she reported.

"Destroyer Hamakaze, main turret 3 seems slightly faulty, please advise."

"Torpedo Cruiser Kitakami, System check; green across the board."

 _"As you have noticed, you three can continue before I advise you all together about the changes that we can make for your apparatus."_

Following the admiral's suggestion, the three gingerly tried to make a system check.

"D-destroyer Yamakaze, System check…uh…" However, the three wasn't sure of what to do, what to check, and what to do with it, so Hamakaze stepped in and gave a tip.

"If you're not sure, check your wrist-mounted device, if it's all green, then you're good," she said, "but even if it's green, if you feel like your equipment is a bit off, you can always report to commander."

The three nodded and started checking their devices.

"A…All green," said Yamakaze, "t-there's no problem, papa."

 _"G…good. Next, Atago if you would?"_

"Y-Yes, the turrets are all green, but icons for torpedo tubes and anti-air guns sometimes flashes orange…" Atago was understandably concerned, but after hearing the report, so does the admiral.

"Battleship Yamato, all green and ready to go." It seemed that amongst the three, Yamato is the only one without any issues in her system, so after her report, the admiral acknowledges the report and started making the necessary adjustments by questioning the girls.

 _"Hamakaze, please describe how your 3_ _rd_ _turret is faulty."_ She asked.

"I feel a point-five second delay in aiming them, and sometimes the elevation is a bit higher than the other two by about 3 degrees."

 _"Acknowledged, I'll recalibrate them shortly,"_ the admiral said. From the radio, some sort of clicking sound was heard, presumably it was the admiral inputting some data into the calibration program in the command center computer. Somehow it didn't take her long to finish the recalibration, as she responded again less than 30 seconds later. _"I've recalibrated the tracking to fix your aim delay by point-five-five seconds. I also adjusted the zeroing distance on it so the elevation shouldn't be a problem."_

In reply to the admiral's report, the Kagerou-class destroyer tried spinning her turrets again in high speed as well as lifting the barrels up and down. "Problem solved, ma'am, as expected of you!" then, she exclaimed in satisfaction.

 _"Next is…Atago…"_ after mentioning her name, the admiral sounds confused. _"Hmm…do you think it's her wiring?"_ the admiral seemed to be talking with another person in the radio as her voice sounds distant from the receiver.

 _"Possibly. Honestly it's hard to tell, since a lot of them are buried under that mess of a rust,"_ Judging by the voice, the girls could only think of it as Yuubari, the arsenal assistant. _"We'll have to let miss Akashi know about it next time, and maybe we can do something about it."_

 _"Any idea of what to do for now?"_

 _"…maybe a close-up inspection. You can help too, miss admiral. You're good with your hands, right?"_

 _"Yeah, alright, I can lend a hand."_ The cracking sound happens once again after the admiral switched to an open channel. _"Basking fleet and Bramble fleet, we will do an emergency repair for Heavy Cruiser Atago, standby until further notice."_

"Wow…close-up repairs by the admirals, huh? That's new," commented Kitakami.

"Even though yesterday everything was running normally…how could it be that it broke down now?" Hamakaze also tilted her head as she looked at Atago's ship suspended in the slipway. The decals on the outside did not seem as different as other ships, but if they were to look into her through the small gaps and opening into her hulls in her decks and superstructures, especially in the openings for her torpedo tubes, they all could see that Atago's rig is not close to what one would call an optimal condition.

"Maybe…it broke down after it was used yesterday…" Atago said apologetically, before actually apologizing to the rest of the fleet. "I apologize for the problem, everyone…please forgive me…"

"No-no, please don't apologize, we don't really see it as a problem," Maya replied with a fuss; she's not really someone who is used to be apologized to.

"Besides, I don't think that even the admiral would think of this so badly. If anything, I can imagine her just saying about how this opens up some more things they need to pay attention to." Kitakami said; " _if there's something new to discover, there's also something new to learn_ , I remember her saying that one time after Ooi and I was upgraded to be a torpedo cruiser."

"Yeah, that's so like her," Hamakaze also addressed with a chuckle, and that was when she noticed the admiral walking through the port in the corner of her eyes; "ah, there's miss Admiral and Yuubari," she responded thus while throwing a salute. Seeing the current secretary ship throw her arm to her forehead, they followed suit and stood straight up while also giving a salute.

"At ease, everyone," said the admiral casually as she walked, bringing a tall ladder with her. Unlike the ships, the normal human without superhuman strength that is the admiral wouldn't be able to jump all the way to the ship's deck, and even if someone is to carry her up, she wasn't confident that her body can handle the sudden acceleration of the jump. _It's not easy being old_ , she said once, despite being the only person with the age of below 30 while the age of the rest of the inhabitants of the port are at least twice that.

Thus, Yuubari who came with her jumped directly to position herself in front of Atago, while the admiral took another 30 seconds climbing her way up to the deck.

"Alright, if you'll excuse me," Yuubari came closer to Atago, circling around her back to get to the center of the rig that she uses to control the whole ship. She was still in her arsenal work suit which features baggy pockets where she can store an entire toolbox in just one shirt, so she could easily procure her tools from there. She took out one screwdriver for her and handed the admiral another.

While Yuubari was working rear part of the heavy cruiser's rig, the admiral was working on mainly the front, which are more in charge of the anti-air guns and comms. Her main concern to work with it was that although Atago reported issues with the status of her armaments, the cruiser's status screen on the command center shows no issues whatsoever, so the communication devices might also be having some issues as well, which justifies her actions.

"Excuse me for a bit," said the admiral as she reached to Atago's rig. She opened several compartments on the rig to check it, and again, she was greeted by the unpleasant smell of iron, though not as bad as when Yuubari opened her turrets. "Damn", she said in a voice no louder than a whisper.

The admiral procured a small flashlight from her pocket. Atago wasn't sure if it's her imagination, but the flashlight seemed like it was meant to be attached to a weapon instead of a commercial use. The admiral checked the insides of the compartment to see some wiring twisted inside, but then she quickly identifies the main issue which was an exposed wire that looks like it could snap at any time.

"Yuubari, can you pass me a solder and some soldering iron?" the admiral asked, which was quickly replied with "right up," while being passed some pen-like apparatus and a roll of iron wire.

"Stand still, okay? I don't want you to get hurt," she said to the owner of the rig, nervously looked at how the admiral was close to her breasts. The admiral first cleaned the cable with her spare handkerchief and made the cuts clean as well with a cutter she borrowed Yuubari earlier, and then she starts connecting the cables together with the soldering iron. After she finished, she returned the solder and binds the cable closed with a wiring tape and she's done. "This'll do for now," she said, "but after this training, you'll probably be excused to stay home for a week until we repair this or get you a completely new wiring kit."

"Scratch that, miss admiral," but Yuubari also chimed from behind the heavy cruiser, "miss Atago would need a lot more than just a new wiring kit. We'll have to completely change or repair the rig."

Just by that sentence alone, the admiral could feel the gravity of the situation.

"The torpedo tubes on her thighs[3] are fine, I just needed to tighten some bolts that connects the wiring, but the loading systems of the main cannons are something else," Yuubari said, rubbing her temples in visible frustration, "even after replacing the turrets, at this point I'll be surprised if they can fire twenty shots each…[4]"

"That bad?" The admiral inadvertently threw her arm to her head in worry, knocking her hat out of place. After a frustrated _ah well,_ the admiral opened the communication again by bringing the radio on her upper chest near her mouth and pressing a button. As she was transmitting to the whole fleet, Atago heard the admiral's voice twice, both directly and through her earpieces. "All units, Basking fleet and Bramble fleet, as Atago's condition is unfit for battle, we will have to cancel today's training."

"P-Please wait!" Atago suddenly interjected. Her sudden movement caused her opened compartments to rattle and worry Yuubari who yelped in surprise. "Everyone, please allow me to operate in this training!" Atago seemed to forget that she could use her radio to transmit her thought to her fellow fleetmates, but she was so agitated that she completely ignored it and instead yelled throughout the docks, hoping that her voice can reach everyone.

"…Standby," said the admiral to the radio again. "You've heard about your conditions. It won't be another week or two until you will be fit for battle, else you will risk your own well-being."

"But I want to go nevertheless!" Atago yelled, "Please, miss admiral! I will do anything…please allow me to prove myself to be useful…as soon as possible!"

Atago's desperation brought her down to her knees, and in a blink of an eye, she was already prostrating herself to her commander. The commander, in return, simply stood silently, pressing the transmit button on her radio.

"Miss Yuubari said that my rig can hold for up to twenty shots on each cannons…and that will be enough for me! I promise I will win the battle with just 100 shells!" Atago continued, this time her shivering voice was heard by the admiral, who stood uncomfortably with her subordinate's forehead nearly touching the tip of her soles.

The admiral sighed. She was initially adamant in not wanting to let Atago cruise the seas with sub-optimal equipment like this, but she was powerless now that Atago even threw in a _dogeza_ in the table.

"All units…you heard Atago. Basking fleet, Yamato as the flagship shall hold the final decision." Ayumi could only report thus across the channel in a dejected voice as if she had given up. She wanted to keep her children safe, but at the same time, she understood Atago's stance, thinking if she was Atago, she'd probably do the same thing.

 _"I…"_ Yamato transmitted after about 30-seconds of wait, _"I feel like I can understand Atago's feeling…I myself would permit her to participate in the fleet."_

"Command copies. Make all the necessary adjustments for the fight. Effective immediately, Atago will only be allowed to fire a maximum of 15 shots from every turret, equaling 75 shells. Pay close attention, because the moment she exceeds that limit, I will treat her as heavily damaged and order an emergency retreat, and that is final," said the admiral. Her voice turned stern, but if she was to allow her ships to be reckless once again, it is a given that she'll have to be strict to avoid further damages. "Bramble fleet, what say you?" Lastly, as the practice isn't a one-sided exchange, she asked the other side…but apparently, they were pissed.

 _"It seems like you're looking down on us,"_ It wasn't just the usual foul-mouthed Hyuuga who said thus, but instead, it was their normally calm flagship, Shouhou. _"Very well, do as you like. But we're not pulling our punches."_

The next person who chimed in was, unexpectedly again, the timid Ushio; _"If you claim that you can win the battle with just 15 salvoes, prove it. Otherwise you'll just be a dead weight for the admiral…and if that's the case, I'll personally remove you with my torpedoes."_

 _"Bramble fleet, over and out."_

With the final parting word of the upset Ashigara, the transmission was cut.

"Atago, on your feet," Said the admiral suddenly. It was not caused by pity or the admiral's discomfort of being prostrated upon, but it was out of strictness. In response, Atago could only obey her order with a hint of fear on her eyes. "Stand tall and stand strong. You heard what the Bramble fleet said, so as both you and the Bramble fleet had said; **prove yourself with those 75 shells**."

"Repairs complete. You're ready to go."

"Alright, Yuubari, let's go back."

With that, the admiral removed herself from the deck of the Heavy Cruiser and walked back to the command room.

* * *

[1] Kitakami (refitted as a torpedo cruiser) had 10 torpedo mounts, which means if all 10 mounts are theoretically equipped with quintuple torpedo launchers, she can launch a torpedo salvo of 50 torpedoes at once (25 each broadside).

[2] The Soviet/Russian Oscar-class submarine _Kursk_ was sunk on 12th of August 2000 due to a torpedo failure.

[3] I tried checking Atago's CG to find out where her torpedo tubes were placed but I can't find anything, so I made something up

[4] Atago had 5 gun mounts, and remember she only had single mounts instead of the regular double mounts.


	8. The Three's Precious First Time

"Basking 3? Basking 3, come in?"

Yamato's call broke Atago free of her muse.

The Basking fleet was staying on standby in a triangular formation on the edge of the area designated the _Open Seas_. They had already started practicing with codenames instead of their regular names, so instead of directly calling Atago, the flagship instead called her Basking 3.

"Basking 3…I'm here," said Atago in response to the call. "where were we?"

"We were reviewing our strategy under the admiral's…I mean, Megalodon's supervision," Hamakaze replied.

"Um…to recap, we will be moving in a tight triangular formation, and move as defensively as possible. If a major fight breaks out, we will try to reform and form an echelon." Yamato explained as she checked her notes in her wrist-mounted device.

 _"_ _Correct, but remember to improve, adapt and overcome. The main objective of reforming your formation is to prevent the enemy from crossing your T as much as possible."_ The admiral, as usual, added some advice from the command room back home. At times, voices of the other fleets could be heard in the background, mainly because the admiral allowed the other fleets to also be present in the command room and discuss what goes right and what goes wrong. However, they were mostly there to stay around the admiral, which sometimes bothers her when her explanation goes into one ear and out the other.

"Understood, shall we have a recap on who's going where?" asked Hamakaze, her skirt flutters gently in the sea breeze, exposing her plump and pristine, stocking-clad legs. "Let's go by names so we can get it in our heads, I'll start. Me as Basking Four will go at the forefront."

"Basking Five, I'll be on the second row next to Basking Six." Kitakami then continued right after as she pressed the transmit button on her radio.

"Six-Six; seconded." Said Maya.

 _"_ _Oh right, since your fleet is the sixth you can shorten the word_ Basking _to simply a_ Six _. All units can use either Basking-number or Six-Number as their codename, whichever rolls off your tongue better."_

"Basking Actual understood." Yamato responded briskly, "I will be at the very back of the formation with Basking Two and Three to my left and right." She also checked the time one more time, ensuring that they still have around 30 seconds before the start of the mission.

"Yama…I mean, Basking Two, affirmative."

"…Basking three, understood."

 _"_ _Six-Three, listen up, although I limited your use of main cannons, you still have full access to your torpedo arsenal, so use it to the fullest,"_ said the admiral from the radio, _"Yamato, you have to fulfill Atago's role as well in surface cannonade, so do your best."_ Mid-way of her speech, the admiral forgot again to use codenames and referred to her ships by name.

"I understand. I'm pretty confident with my triple-15-centimeter guns, so leave it to me." Yamato tried to sound as reassuring as possible to prevent her teammate from feeling guilty, but Atago still apologized in the end.

A crack sounds, the admiral switched the transmission again; _"All units, training will begin in 10 seconds,"_ hearing the heads up, all members of the basking fleet visibly attempted to calm themselves before they begin. Some took a deep breath, some nervously swallowed their saliva, while some others stretch themselves. _"Good luck out there, do us all proud."_

"Understood. Basking fleet shall depart."

* * *

The weak breeze was blowing against them, but it got considerably stronger as the ships started to move.

The layout of the battlespace and the positioning of the ships were simple. There was virtually nothing in the battlespace, and the ships of both fleet will meet head-on if they simply cruise forward. It is completely up to the fleets to plot a course according to the tactics they will use to defeat the OPFOR. The difference is that one fleet is under the direct command of the admiral, giving a significant advantage as they have an extra head to think with.

It's no rare case that sometimes the two fleets never get to see each other because they maneuvered themselves completely clear of each other. In all of those cases, it was done unintentionally, but this time, they will do it intentionally.

The reason was clear; they are going to stall time until night falls and fight them then. It's not like they are completely powerless during the day, but their chance of winning will be greatly increased once the curtain of darkness falls upon them, so if all else possible, they would rather sustain as much as their strength as possible for when the time is right.

That was why their first action was to launch a scouting plane. Atago's was out of the question since it's designed for night scouting, so Maya and Yamato were the one who stepped up and launched their own; Yamato for short-range warning as well as artillery spotting, while Maya's went further to gain intel on the OPFOR's location as well as directions of where they will be cruising.

Yamato, of course, was confused on how to deploy her floatplanes, so the admiral politely told her to simply pick the floatplanes from one of the compartments of the rig and lob it into the air. As she did, the floatplane she picked combusted into blue flames, and as it did, a full-scaled Aichi E13A was launched from her catapult, almost as if fired with a bright blue fiery flash.

The plane teetered slightly in response to Yamato's awkward throw, but it regained balance and flew away to make a circle around the fleet.

"All units, please plot a course bearing zero-five-zero; speed, fifteen knots," said Yamato, checking the compass in her wrist-mounted device to check for absolute bearing[1] for directions. "Miss Maya…Basking six, please keep us informed about your scout, we will make adjustments for our course then."

"Copy that, lead." Maya planned to sweep the whole left flank with her scout planes, but since the battlespace was huge, it takes a long while to even get her aircraft into position.

The ships' funnels spewed black smoke as its engines provided power for the propulsion to propel the majestic ships forward in tidy formations. The three new ships had also seemed to have managed to get used to the controls, so all of them now cruises straight onwards without any issues.

All the while they continued cruising forward mindlessly, Yamato kept checking her wrist-mounted device to find the level of gasoline that she had been procured. She kept her worried voice down that kept muttering the word _fuel_ as to not get noticed by everybody else in the fleet, but unfortunately, the voice was still transmitted through the microphone near her mouth.

"Miss Yamato?" asked Hamakaze from all the way at the front of the fleet formation.

"Y-yes, what is it?"

"You don't have to worry, you know? This isn't like _that operation_ _ **[2]**_ ; the admiral always makes sure that we can always come back," Hamakaze smiled, though Yamato couldn't see her since she's hidden behind her superstructure, "Sure, we don't have any land-based air supports as well, but it's not like we're facing 300 aircrafts and that damned Grey Ghost[3]."

"…I guess…"

 _"_ _Someone's not going to be happy hearing that…"_

The admiral muttered something, only to be heard by none.

"Enemy ships spotted, they're cruising directly our way with flank speed," after thus, Maya's reconnaissance plane reported back to her. "At this point, they'll reach our point of destination first and we'll risk having our T crossed; what do we do?"

"Hmm…what do you think, miss admiral?" Yamato asked. She hasn't gotten much combat experience, so she asked the admiral a lot since the beginning, not just about strategies, but also about general movement procedures, but it's not like the admiral hated it. If anything, she's glad to be able to help her ships grow.

 _"_ _I'd say turn to three-two-five. Do that, and you'll get a long-range parallel harassment gunnery; one Yamato is good at,"_ she said with little to no delay, signifying that she already had a plan in mind in case her subordinates asked her opinion.

"S…Six-one, copy your last," said Yamato, "all units, turn to three-two-five, maintain speed as much as possible." Rushing will only lead them to meet their parallel engagement sooner, so Yamato chose to maintain speed.

 _"_ _The destroyers can also try to lob some torpedoes their way, but since they'll probably be outside of its effective firing range_ _ **[4]**_ _, you can try it in your own discretion."_

"Can I try, lead?" asked Kitakami, "I mean, I have a lot of torpedoes anyways, so it'll be a shame not to use them."

"That's true, but since they'll be to our port, I think it's best to keep the heavy cruiser and the anti-air cruiser on our right to protect us from air raid, don't you think?" Yamato hollered, pressing the earpiece in her ear to focus in hearing both the words of the admiral and her teammate. Her teammates in question also pondered from her suggestion with an audible _hmm_.

 _"_ _I won't be so sure about that,"_ after a significant delay, the admiral chimed in again. Her delay was somewhat…weird, in a way that it felt almost as if it's perfectly timed; if several seconds passed and no one in the fleet raises another proposition, she'll take over and provide the fleet with useful advices; _"Aircrafts don't need to always follow their mother ship's cruising directions."_

Hearing her admiral's words, Atago's eyes opened wide, "Does that mean they'll try to attack from our starboard flank?"

"…I see, that's also possible," Yamato supplemented, "but…are you sure, miss admiral? If we switched the position of Six-Five and Six-Six, it'll take more time to get them to go back if it turns out that they'll attack from our port side."

At the very fundamental level, Yamato is saying that this decision might be a gamble. In the worst-case scenario, they will expose their port side as a cost of increasing the chance of torpedoes hitting their target.

"I probably don't need to ask you, command, but why are you so sure they'll send aircrafts on our starboard flank?" Maya was the one who asked

 _"_ _It's what I'd do."_

"…Six-one, let's do it," Hamakaze said after a chuckle, "Once the admiral said that, I'm 90% sure nothing wrong is going to happen with this strategy."

Thinking back to it, the members of the navy followed the admiral almost too religiously. As a fleet of her own, the Bramble Fleet would follow her advices to the bone, including the idea of attacking the enemy from two sides, one by ships, and the other, by aircrafts.

"…Understood, Six-Five and Six-Six will switch positions, but Six-Two and Six-Three shall maintain their positions," said Yamato, and without delay, the fleet executed their maneuvering.

 _"_ _In the meantime, take your time to get the OPFOR's twenty as well as its formation. Then be ready to open fire once the opportunity shows itself."_

"Six-Six, my scout plane indicated no changes, they are still moving in a straight formation." Maya continued to transmit the information she got from her scout plane all the while switching positions with her teammate Kitakami.

 _"_ _Try to provide more info about their range, Maya. Get them to know how far they are in front of your fleet, what their ETA will look like."_ Advised the admiral.

"Uh…They are currently cruising at Shouhou's flank speed of…28 knots, and they are about 30 minutes away from my main gun's firing range, so it should enter miss Yamato's maximum firing range in less than 6 minutes. I've transmitted the details of their position to your map."

The disparity between the time it takes for the enemy fleet to enter Maya and Yamato's maximum firing range only shows how much power Type 94 naval guns can bring to the table. Unfortunately, it also shows the fleet how demanding it can be to shoot as far as 42 kilometers away, where her shells would arrive at the point of contact over a minute and a half after they left the muzzle.

 _"_ _There you have it. Yamato, load AP on your first and second turrets, standby for the third."_

"Six-one copies, we'll make adjustments accordingly," said Yamato, "I also just got intel from my floatplanes; two torpedo bomber air group with a flight of four each, bearing two-seven-nine, escorted by one fighter air group. They don't seem to be flying toward us."

"Six-one, six-four reports detection of two air groups to our port side bearing one-one-five," Hamakaze exclaimed amidst the cruise while her eyes are trained far away towards the direction she mentioned. A normal human will have a hard time seeing it, but for the girl, especially the destroyer shipgirl that had the best eyesight that surpasses other ship classifications, she can even describe what air groups are approaching them; "Reporting one flight of four dive bombers and another flight of four fighters escorting the dive bombers."

"…do they see us?" Kitakami asked, squinting her eyes as she received the location data from both Maya and Hamakaze that reported the location of the aircrafts.

"I don't believe so…if they've spotted us, they would've went in and make a beeline toward us." Yamato was skeptical but at the same time logical. Why would the ships stray that far away and not even flying their directions?

But the admiral had another thought.

 _"_ _No, I believe they've spotted you,"_ she said briskly, _"to answer your question of why they haven't attacked you yet…probably they would like to attack at the same time as when they get you within range of your main battery."_

"…?!" after listening to the admiral's opinion, Yamakaze widened her eyes in full alert. She looked around in full agitation, before throwing her head backwards to look up as she realized something.

"Yamakaze?" Yamato who was next to her noticed her flustering, but she still didn't understand…at least not until Yamakaze shouts it out; "Spotter planes! A flight of four E13A, right over our heads!"

"What!?"

 _"_ _I thought so,"_ said the admiral.

"All units get that spotter plane down as soon as possible!" Yamato bellowed right after hearing the news. The admiral was about to stop her, but the words had just barely left her mouth when the rapid shooting of anti-air guns and the main cannons of the destroyers exploded from the fleet. The high-angle main guns trained itself upwards as quickly as the destroyers could aim the cannons on their rigs, pointing towards the enemy in the sky.

Both Hamakaze and Yamakaze's arms felt pressure as the explosion that propels their shells kicks back at their torso, meanwhile the bigger ships' anti-air guns barely made any influence on their bigger torso given that they're on a lower caliber.

"Aircrafts downed!" yelled Yamakaze as the explosion of the fused main cannon shells brought an end to the flight of scout planes above them along with significant amount of dark smoke from within them.

 _"_ _Six-one, immediately load your third cannon with Beehive shells, because…"_ The admiral was about to give an advice, but both Hamakaze and Yamato herself had noticed that the gears of the Bramble fleet's assault had started turning.

Noticing the change of behavior from the enemy units, Hamakaze reported with a yell, cutting through the admiral's sentence; "…The aircrafts changed their course! They're making a beeline toward us!"

 _"_ _All hands, on deck, prepare yourselves for the incoming airstrikes."_ Said the admiral. Her voice also transmitted some sort of gritting sound, which the girls could only suspect it being the admiral tightly gripping the receiver on the other end of the radio. _"Six-one…focus on the enemy's main fleet. Try to make a surprise attack the moment their fleet enters your firing range."_

"This is Six-five, requesting permission to fire a full salvo of 25 torpedoes after Six-one," Kitakami chimed in afterwards with full confidence, "I've done the calculation and prediction and sent it to you for review; at this point, I'm confident that I can hit at least five…no, ten torpedoes."

 _"_ _Six-five, have you considered their further actions after Six-one had fired at them?"_

But the admiral's sudden question threw her off.

"…Negative."

 _"_ _Then I would advise against it, I believe reloading your whole broadside will take some time, and it's not worth it if the torpedoes are far off their target,"_ said the admiral. Her words brought disappointment for Kitakami, _"I just checked your calculation, and I say you did an awesome job. Next time I might just want you to open the strike."_ But even without recognizing her dismay, the admiral never forgets to pick her children back up by some words of praise, which lifted both Kitakami's spirit and the ends of her lips.

"And when that time comes and my torpedoes split all of the enemy ships in half, can I have a kiss as a reward?"

 _"_ _I…I'll think about it,"_ she said, and multiple dry sounds like those of palms striking the tip of one's head were transmitted from the admiral's position along with several _'ow'_ s, _"I mean, if she someone can really sink an entire fleet with just one salvo, that'll be awesome…"_

 _I get it! I get it, but it's just not fair!_ , someone said in the background.

 _"_ _A-anyways…! Please focus back on the combat. Those with ample anti-air armaments are to keep their guns at the ready, and those without it are to dig-in and try to survive as long as possible!"_

"Command, you can't dig into water."

 _"_ _It was a metaphor, Maya! Stop laughing!"_

In the end, the exchange felt more like a warmup before the ships are to face the storm of battle, and the six heaved a breath of relief.

"Anti-air guns are at the ready," Maya said, reporting.

Hamakaze followed suit straight after she threw the chamber doors of her main cannons shut; "Main cannons are ready with fused ammunitions; torpedo tubes are also primed and ready!"

"I'll be ready to immediately recalculate torpedo trajectories the moment the shells hit the enemy fleet," Kitakami said. She brought the wrist-mounted device up close to her face, ready to make adjustments.

Immediately following the flow, Yamakaze, Atago and Yamato's spirit was also lifted, so they gave reports on their own; "Main cannons are ready! I also already set torpedo speed and cruise depth adequately!" said the tiny Yamakaze energetically; "It might be hard, but I will do my best!", hollered the Takao-class' second ship, and the superbattleship, already aiming her front cannons toward the direction of the enemy fleet, said "Entering firing range in 30 seconds! All hands, at the ready!"

"About time," Maya exclaimed, "those aircrafts also have entered the long-range anti-air cannons; I'll open fire after you, lead."

 _"_ _Six-one, try to calculate the timing so that your first and second cannon shells hit the enemy fleet the exact time as when your beehive shell burst."_

"S…Six-one understood. I'll not let you down."

 _"_ _Good."_

The situation was obviously tense, and to say that Yamato wasn't nervous would be a big, fat lie. Sure, she had the mightiest armament the world had ever came up with, mounted on top of a fortress floating in the sea, but aside from the skills needed to actually hit something with it, she never had live combat experience, which could only deepen her nervousness as she had her fingers on the trigger of her cannons.

The destroyer Yamakaze to the superbattleship's right silently swallowed her spit. Just like Yamato, this will be her first time sortieing under a proper chain of command, along with proper teammates, and not to mention, fighting a proper enemy fleet. The expectation of both the enemy fleet and her three new friends bore down on her so much her shoulders could only silently quiver under the weight.

Meanwhile Atago was the one who seemed the most like a nervous wreck. Not only that both conditions of Yamakaze and the superbattleship Yamato applied on her, she was also burdened by the feeling of guilt from her malfunctioning equipment. She made all the ruckus trying to convince her fleetmates to allow her to be let out in the sea to prove herself, but she ended up invoking hostility from the enemy team, and after thus, she could only ponder if she had made the right decision to sortie; would it help her team, or would she just bring them down?

All the worries passed through the three ship's heads, but somehow, a smile crept upon their charming lips.

The early afternoon sun that beat down upon skins of the girls only led to the amount of sweat adding up on each of their own supple cheeks, but they all made a curve as the beads of sweat circled around the smiling girls.

From Six-one to Six-six, they all were smiling.

Even the frail-looking destroyer Yamakaze; she was smiling.

Even the damaged cruiser Atago; she was also smiling.

All for because of one simple reason.

A chance…to—

 _"_ _Prove yourselves."_

"AP SHELLS, ON THE WAY!"

The propellants behind the massive 46 cm shells explode into massive fireballs, and both its shockwave and its sound ruined the pattern of the sea waves. It started a mental timer within the six ships' minds; a countdown to the heat of the battle.

* * *

[1] Absolute bearing uses the north of the compass as a zero-zero-zero angle, while relative bearing that the admiral uses for pointing out directions relative to the ship uses the ship's direction as the zero-zero-zero angle. This information might not be accurate since I don't have an in-depth knowledge about it, but this is more convenient to use.

[2] Operation _Ten-Go._ On 6th of April 1945, Yamato, Hamakaze, seven more destroyers and a light cruiser was sent to Okinawa to slow down US advances and/or liberate it, hence Yamato and Hamakaze's interactions in the earlier chapters. The problem with the operation was that it was supposed to be a kamikaze attack (yes, with the world's biggest battleship); the goal was to beach Yamato and her escorts in Okinawa to make a coastal gun out of them, so the navy only loaded her with enough fuel for a one-way trip. Since no air support was assigned to them as well, the fleet ended up being swarmed with US aircrafts.

[3] USS Enterprise. Nicknamed such because she was reported to be sunk 3 times throughout the war by the IJN, but in reality, she even survived the war.

[4] Its effective firing range is 22 kilometers, but apparently reducing its speed can carry them up to 40 kilometers


	9. Hit-and-Run

_"_ _We've pulled forward! Well done!"_

"What?!"

No one could believe it; even the one who shot the she shells only stood on her bow, flabbergasted with her mouth hanging open.

"R-reporting three hits on heavy cruiser Kako…!" said the anti-air cruiser. She made a gesture like she's holding a pair of glasses in front of her eyes, but obviously, she would do fine without one; she only did that to concentrate her sight to the approaching enemy fleet, "one over-penetrated her aft, but the other two penetrated right in her citadel! She's heavily damaged! She's out of the fight!"

"Nani!?"

"I-I'm sorry, but we don't have time to celebrate…! The aircrafts!" Meanwhile, Yamakaze showed a difficult expression after she had to report the incoming threat meanwhile ending up feeling guilty for raining on their parade.

 _"_ _Yamakaze's right. Resume operations; Yamato, reload beehive shells for the aircrafts. The rest of you, get ready to light them up the moment they enter your gun range!"_ chimed the admiral sternly. _"Widen up your formation and increase speed. Don't forget that your focus was to defend yourselves; you got a hit in, and that's enough, so don't push yourself to bite more than you can chew."_

"Roger that; six-four will increase speed," said Hamakaze agreeing,

"Six-five copies. Six-six, increase speed and adjust starboard, I'll do the opposite." Kitakami pointed at the direction that Maya should go before turning herself to the other directions.

"Six-six, ten-four, making necessary adjustments."

The six were in major shock from the admiral's report that Yamato's salvo miraculously damage a heavy cruiser that they missed their chance to follow up after Yamato's beehive shell burst in the sky. Now that they had regained their composure, they felt it's way past the time to open fire.

It started off with the slow-firing long-range anti-aircraft guns that started spewing bullets, but the skillful manipulation of the aircrafts by the enemy Shouhou allowed them to break through the outer layer of the anti-air defense with brute force. Some of the dive bombers even managed to have done some inhuman feats and practically threw their payloads; one of which managed to land a hit on Maya.

Maya felt like her back had been punched, and she groaned in pain briefly "Reporting one hit on my deck…persistent little bastards, aren't they?" she rhetorically asked a question, unheard by her fellow teammates thanks to the roaring concentrated emplacements on her deck.

 _"_ _Maya, try concentrating all guns toward one target and send them barrages to thin them out bit by bit. The rest of you can try doing it as well,"_ said the admiral. Sometimes the advices that the admiral gave during troublesome times without prompt led Maya to question the admiral's actual ability to read the atmosphere _"I recommend you designate your targets as well so that all of you can make a judgment whether to focus on that target or to prevent overkilling them."_

Sometimes one set of AA guns are enough to blow up a squadron therefore two sets would be overkill. On the other hand, they may need more than one set of guns to attack the enemy aircrafts to bring them down swiftly. That decision of choosing targets is the main idea the admiral implied with what she just said.

Following the admiral's advice, Maya stopped trying to shoot towards all direction and focuses on one flight of torpedo bombers while reporting them. They do not have a way to designate each target, so Maya desperately tried to address the aircrafts by their characteristics and general location in respect to her position.

"Six…uh…Yamakaze! Torpedoes bearing three-one-one!" the fog of war shrouded the team as the aircraft grew closer and slowly started to launch their payloads, and the panicking Atago who noticed the torpedo bombers some dozens of kilometers away taking a dive to release its loads couldn't remember Yamakaze's code number and chose to call her name instead.

 _"_ _Alright, you know what, try using codenames as much as possible but if you find yourself confused or forgetting it, just drop it altogether."_ Finally, the admiral made the order before making advices for the ship under attack. _"Those torpedo bombers are likely to target Maya; their long-range capabilities are uncertain, but if they launch from that distance they can avoid the brunt of Maya's weaponries with a hope of hitting their targets."_

At that moment, an explosion erupted along with several pillars of water from around the torpedo cruiser.

Kitakami reported after a cough; "…command…miss admiral. Received one hit on my forward deck, near my first cannon," now it was clear to everyone as to why Kitakami had a coughing fit as she reported; the hit she received was located just somewhere behind her human body. As the cloud of smoke dispersed, it also revealed that the hit corresponds to the area around the back of Kitakami's neck "miss admiral, I suspect that they're aiming for my torpedo launchers…please advise!"

Kitakami was slouched while holding the back of her neck that received a hit, and several parts of her mango-green sailor uniform was tinted black from the explosion.

 _"_ _Command copies, I noticed how they just slightly missed your torpedo tubes,"_ the admiral replied. Her tone was slightly agitated just like the ships. _"Maya, move forward in respect of the fleet formation, that should throw off the torpedo aim but make adjustments the moment you acquire the torpedoes in your sonar or vision. Everyone on the left flank, Hamakaze included, focus on the torpedo bombers. The rest of you, focus fire on any dive bombers you can see!"_ In the end, the admiral's voice grows into that of a growl; _"remember, you might have a number advantage, but it's up to you to keep it that way. One well-placed bomb on Kitakami's torpedo tubes could send her back to port, and another on Maya would destroy your anti-air curtain"_

The gravity of the situation sinks in on the ships again, causing them to audibly swallow their spit.

"S…should I unload my torpedoes, miss admiral? That way at least the torpedoes are less exposed and that way they won't cause further damage."[1] Kitakami voiced her concern, brushing the beads of water on her uniform before it starts seeping in.

 _"_ _If you are confident you can load your torpedoes in time for your next engagement, then do so."_ The commander answered in her next breath. Fluidity of communication is key to higher survival rate, so she wasted no time before replying, _"Yamato, what's the status to your reload?"_

"Hrk…j-just one more shell before full reload…!" Brought back to the spotlight, Yamato stuttered. Her shells were heavier compared to even other battleship, and combined with her lack of training, it took her extra effort to pick up her spare shells and push it into her cannon's breech.

 _"_ _Command copies. Pay full attention to torpedoes in the meantime!"_

"C-copy!"

Just as the admiral finished her sentence, Maya chimed in with a new report; "Torpedoes detected; four of them cruising parallel to my two-nine-zero. At this rate they won't hit me like the admiral predicted, but…I think it's going to hit Miss Yamato."

 _Crap_ , someone said from the radio.

 _"_ _Someone who had an angle on the coordinates I provided, aim that way and fire HE shells on my command! If possible please send at least four shells that way into the water!"_ said the admiral with agitation. Yamato's heavy structure would mean that it's virtually impossible for her to maneuver her way out of the torpedo's straight line, so the admiral could only resort to this method that she used some months ago that was unreliable, but possible. Losing Yamato would mean a lot for the fleet who are built around her, so if there is any slight chance of keeping her afloat for the battle, the admiral would bet on it.

However,

"Six-six; I can't, it's too close!" First it was Maya who grit her teeth after seeing the point in the map on her wrist-mounted device, and then the others followed suit.

"I…I'm sorry…It is also too close for me…I don't have an angle on it" Yamakaze said as if she was about to cry from the panic alone.

"I don't have enough guns facing that angle…all I have are torpedo tubes!" Kitakami was unable to comply simply because she doesn't have enough shells that she could throw in that direction because of what she is.

"I'm sorry admiral, I can't shoot that way otherwise I'll hit miss Maya," Hamakaze doesn't have an angle since the area highlighted are behind Maya. Of course, Maya could have simply moved aside, but by the time Hamakaze got an angle, the torpedo would have ripped Yamato apart.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm not confident in firing in that close of a direction…even with my secondary cannon…" Meanwhile the Yamato in question could have used her secondary cannons to comply, but she couldn't be confident in firing in that direction with enough precision not to hit the two of her companions to her left.

 _"…_ _I need it shot in three seconds. Anyone who's available to…"_

 ** _BLAM_**

"!?"

The explosion sounds a lot like a cannon fire, but it sounds somehow very…dry, as if along with the gunfire, a massive log was split in half. Just as the explosion burst, five AP shells were flung towards the admiral's target.

 _"_ _Off the mark! Whoever that was, fire again!"_

Following the order, another set of dry explosions echoed in the surface of the sea. This time, the shells finds its target perfectly, and the explosives contained in the torpedoes expanded, creating a muffled explosion before erupting a massive water pillar on its location. After a short while, the signals from the torpedoes disappeared, and the crisis is temporarily averted.

Meanwhile, the water pillar loses its integrity in the air, and its majority turned into small droplets or water vapor which scatters in the air. The girls instinctively tried to cover their face from the splash of water so that they did not get water in their eyes, but even that proves to be a grave mistake.

Another set of explosions erupted; it was on board the deck of the heavy cruiser Atago.

"A…a…" the cruiser herself was almost unable to produce an intelligible answer; it was as if she was just got punched in the sides, causing her to either stop breathing or cough violently. Atago doubled over as she took the hit and the woman fell on her knees, trying to regulate her breathing. It was painful, obviously, but for Atago who hasn't received a hit ever simply because she was never sent out to the sea, it must be a lot more excruciating for her, and the admiral, too, understood that.

But to let her continue doing that would prove to be a major risk for the fleet's—especially the new ships'—morale. Yamakaze and Yamato, too, had never been sent out to missions before, so they're very prone to be frightened by damages; especially after seeing Atago's current suffering, they might be petrified.

So the admiral chose to be insensitive; _"Atago, Atago; come on, get on your feet,"_ she said. She wanted to be strict directly from the start, but since she's a good person at heart, she hesitated and ended up half-comforting Atago all the while. _"Take it easy and breathe. It's going to be okay. Assess your damage and report back to me. The rest of you; eyes up to the sky! The air raid isn't done yet!"_

The admiral had used this particular torpedo-defense strategy before; notably several months prior when the Hammerhead fleet was facing against the Mako fleet, and several other times where she used it during live combat. However, as the fleets got used to it, they also started noticing its weakness.

The underlying principle of the strategy is to fire HE shell and cause shockwaves in the water enough to trigger the torpedoes' fuse, effectively blowing them up mid-way, but despite the explosive power of the HE shells, hitting torpedoes isn't an easy task to do; they're small, and hard to spot, not to mention that they're way quicker than the surface ships. Given that, the ships need to concentrate themselves to be able to shoot them down, which in turn leaves them vulnerable to attacks from other fronts, such as the air.

And that was what the Bramble fleet, or at least their air squadrons, had accomplished; during the time the girls are focused on trying to intercept the torpedoes they can't evade, the dive bombers snuck in the hole of Atago's anti-air defense and dropped their payloads on her.

"One down!" Hamakaze shouted, and a fireball came crashing down towards the ocean, "This is six-four; enemy aircrafts are either shot down, expended their payloads or retreating! Airspace is clear, I repeat; airspace is clear!"

Yamato, as the flagship, felt compelled to know the condition of her teammates, so she briskly said through the radio; "all units, damage report!"

"S-six-two, no problems!" Yamakaze said, wiping the mix of seawater and sweat off her cheek.

"Six-four, reporting some shrapnel on the hull, but nothing major." Hamakaze replied while reloading her main cannon.

"Six-five, bomb hit caused damage to forward deck, and turret no. 1. It's still functional, but it doesn't look good." Kitakami coughed again. She turned around on her deck and reported as she assessed the damage on the first cannon, now right in front of her.

"Six-six; dive bombers messed up one of my AA guns in the emplacement. It's spewing smokes, so I reckon it's unusable, but I can throw a quick fix if we get a breather!" Maya, however, had left her post from the front of the ship and parkoured her way towards the emplacement to check. The emplacement itself was fine, though it sure had seen better days, but one of them seemed to have taken a direct hit from the dive bombers while the others are merely scratched from its shrapnel.

 _"_ _All that's left is…"_

 _Atago_ , everyone thought, but no one said it out loud.

"S…ix…t-three…," while she sharply inhales air from between her teeth as an attempt to endure her pain, Atago slips out a voice; "Received…three hits…on deck…" every once in a while, her report was interrupted by a cough, but she continued nevertheless. "T…turret four, and…aircraft crane…heavi…ly…damaged."

The girls around her looked at Atago with an expression of admiration, one that silently says " _you can do it!"_ , or both.

Atago herself started to feel embarrassed. _This cannot continue_ , she thought, so she punched her deck with one hand and exerted strength to push herself back up while the other still held her stomach.

 _"_ _Good job, Atago,"_ said the admiral as a response, but the cruiser's reply to that was rather…hostile.

"Don't…don't pity me…admiral. I didn't…do anything," her face was scrunched up with pain as she replied, and her strength only allowed her to get on her knees.

 _"_ _I don't plan to,"_ still, the admiral was calm in demeanor. She understood that people don't like being pitied, but her sentence wasn't meant to be that of a pity. _"If you deserve punishment then I'll punish you. Conversely, if you deserve a praise, you will be praised. It's not rocket science, it's simple morale management,"_ said the admiral with less emotions than a bottle of ketchup, as if she's stating the obvious. _"You protected your teammates by eliminating the torpedoes, which took out two salvoes from your arsenal and at the same time drew the heat from the others, so good job. But your job is not done yet. All units listen up!"_

The girls gulped involuntarily. This is the time when the admiral would be ungodly serious that nobody dared to joke around if she's heard talking in this tone.

 _"_ _Maneuver yourself away from the enemy. You've delivered your blow, so there's no reason to stay around any longer. The enemy will look for you, so use that to your advantage. In the meantime, fix yourself as much as possible but keep an eye out so that you don't get caught with your pants down. Remember; harassment surface warfare is the key; you can do anything you want as long as you stay in the dark, that means you can get as close as you want as long as you don't get detected by the aircraft patrols they might be setting up."_ The admiral was fired up, but her hints proved to be a lot more like a lecture than a battlefield tip.

"Six-actual copies…All units, plot a course for two-two-five, set speed to twenty knots." Yamato took the admiral's suggestion and plotted a course due southwest, away from the enemy fleet.

"T…two-two-five, speed; twenty knots, check!" Atago followed suit and entered the plotted course to her wrist-mounted device for the ship to automatically cruise while she was still meekly sprawled on her deck.

"Two-two-five, twenty knots, check. Beginning necessary repairs." Maya, too, put in the course. Every ship was capable of automatic cruising as it was extremely valuable feature to have if they need to do something during long course, such as repairs.

"Command, this is Six-four, permission to create a small DesRon[2] to deliver torpedo harassment to the enemy fleet." After the admiral's lecture, Hamakaze opened communication.

 _"_ _I don't mind. Yamato?"_ the admiral ended up asking Yamato, seeking the flagship's approval.

"Six-four, please detail your plan more clearly." The admiral might have known what Hamakaze is up to, but for Yamato who isn't as proficient in battles, the thought didn't even cross her mind.

"Six-four copies. Six-four and possibly Six-two and Six-five will act as high-speed strike force, moving separately from the main fleet to deliver swift strikes while staying undetected." Hamakaze delivered her ideas clearly, but within the three ships, doubts still linger.

"Isn't that…dangerous?" asked Atago who just recovered after assigning damage control party (in the form of pain relief spray) on her midriff. As she did, the damage on her deck started to dissipate, with small fairies seemingly repairing salvageable parts.

 _"…_ _she'll be relying a lot on Yamato,"_ said the admiral, whose words were met with confusion; _"What I meant was that if she got caught up in their radars, Yamato will provide covering fire while the strike force attempts retreat by popping smoke."_

"Ah…I forgot we have that…", muttered Yamakaze, who before arriving at this base, didn't even know that smokescreens exist within their equipment list.

"I see…" Yamato put her hand on her chin, pondering. "What about six-two and six-five? Any suggestions or objections?"

"None," Kitakami answered instantly, "I'd rather salvo my torpedoes their way than have them split my own behind with them. Besides, if there's any chance I can win the admiral's kiss, I'll take it any day."

 _"…_ _Yamakaze, it's okay if you don't want to go,"_ The admiral felt Yamakaze's nervousness, and she also felt that even if Yamakaze doesn't want to go, she's the type that would crumble from the pressure now that she knows Kitakami is also agreeing to Hamakaze's suggestion, but…

"I accept. I will go with miss Hamakaze and miss Kitakami. I'll show papa that I'm not a burden!" it turned out Yamakaze was excited as she is scared. Her legs were wobbling, and her voice was shivering, but she wasn't lying when she said she's all up for it.

 _"…_ _I see,"_ and so the admiral could only accept Yamakaze's enthusiasm and provide them with all the support she could; _"Yamakaze, use this chance and learn from the two about torpedo strikes. It's not that I don't believe in you, but you're inexperienced, so learn from them."_

"U…Understood!"

 _"_ _Hamakaze and Yamato; I can't stress this enough but keep your eyes peeled to your detection warning system. The enemy fleet consists of three…no, two heavy cruisers and a battleship on top of their carrier and destroyer. If the strike force is detected, one mistiming could make a mess, so be careful."_ Her speech sounds like she was holding back. Normal people might not have noticed, but for the ships who served by her for years now, they thought that normally their commander would say something like _one mistake could blow them to smithereens_. However, if she had said that, she might be putting unnecessary pressure to the ships concerned, so the subordinates around the admiral in the command room silently smiled.

"Understood, I'll not let you down," Hamakaze responded. Her right hand silently crept toward the two cylindrical canisters strapped on her sling belt circled around her torso. After affirming the two objects, she heaved a sigh of relief; the two objects seemed to have brought the feeling of safety for her.

"A…alright…Six-one, six-three and six-six will continue our course due south in a triangular formation, how copy?" said Yamato.

"U…Understood," Atago seemed to be okay now, so she attempted to get back on her feet, albeit with considerable effort.

"'Eit, hol'gon, I'm ing ghe miggle of hommking" Maya seemed to be busy with something; she held a screwdriver on her mouth while attaching AA-gun parts on the rig she held on her right hand. She attached the AA-gun parts that looked like a turret on to the rig and screwed them tight, and after that, she reported back; "Alright, I'm done with major repairs; just say the word, lead."

"Rally up!" said Yamato, "From here on out, miss Kitakami shall be the leader of the strike force, please make the necessary adjustments for your strikes."

"Ro~ger," as the one who gave the idea, one might think that Hamakaze should be the leader of the strike force, and that wouldn't be wrong, but for Yamato who's inexperienced, the only knowledge she had is that the leader of a desron should be a light cruiser, and thus she gave the position to Kitakami instead. Hamakaze herself didn't' mind as she also thought that it was normal. Additionally, she also believes that Kitakami also had the necessary knowledge to be a good leader, so she voiced no complaints. "Alright, desron six, as I'd like to call it, rally up and let's plot a course for zero-two-zero; north-northeast, speed 27 knots, adjust to straight formation."

"Zero-two-zero, 27 knots, check."

"Zero-two-z-zero…27 knots, check."

"Desron six, all checked; we'll see you later."

"Godspeed, six-five."

The boilers of the three ships audibly work themselves up as the three ships turned their prows toward their direction.

 _"_ _Yamato, now that your aft is facing the desron's direction, this is the perfect angle for you to provide anti-air cover as well. Kitakami, if any of your members spot some aircrafts that might be in your way, Yamato could try to shoot them down with the beehive shell"_ the admiral sent some tips their way again.

 _"_ _Right-o~"_

 _"_ _Remember not to cruise too far that you can't communicate with each other. Your radio is just as important as your radar, so pay attention where you're going,"_ said the admiral, _"any spotting information, whether it be from your spotter aircrafts, radar or direct line of sight is important, so be a communist for once and share it."_

"…speaking of which, I still have my spotter in the air," Maya said in a realization after adjusting her position relative to Yamato and her sister Atago. "Uhh…let's see here…the enemy fleet had turned away after Kako took the hit, but they turned our way during their assault to close distance," remembering her admiral's advice, Maya tried to be as elaborate as possible in her explanation. The system might have transferred data from the aircraft to Maya and directly to the other ships' system, but the enemy only appears as a dot-shaped marker in the ships' vision and map, meaning their cruising directions are, to put it mildly, very vague; "Their coordinates are thirty kilometers bearing three-four-zero relative to your position and closing. Their cruise direction bears…one-eight-zero; they're cruising directly south at around twenty knots."

 _"_ _Thanks for the information, six-six,"_ said Kitakami over the radio, _"If it's thirty kilometers…then we have less than 6 minutes to reach our torpedoes' maximum range and less than 3 to acquire them within our radar."_

"Oh, good," Maya somehow sound relieved; "to tell you the truth, I've forgotten about my scout plane and now it's running out of fuel. Also, it seems like Shouhou's returning planes did a drive-by on my plane for…no god damn reason, really, so it's a bit damaged."

 _"_ _So you need them refueled and repaired?"_

"Yeap, so you'll be blind for approximately…I don't know, maybe 10 minutes?"

 _"_ _That's alright, six-six. I'll just be more vigilant in the meantime,"_ as the destroyer, Hamakaze also acts like a spotter so her spotting range should be higher than the others. That also applies to Yamakaze, but she herself would need Hamakaze's guidance during this exercise.

"Alright, I'll leave it to you," Maya responded, "I'll call back my aircraft. I'll return them back to you ASAP."

 _"_ _No rush. We're also only planning to scout around in the meantime,"_ Kitakami's voice echoed again, but this time, her words were greeted by the admiral's rebuttal.

 _"_ _No, don't just scout around,"_ she said, _"Right now, Shouhou must be busy refueling and rearming the aircrafts they used against you earlier, so this is the prime time for you to strike. Get as close as possible and strike, and after then you can do your scouting."_

 _"_ _Understood. My bad, miss Admiral…"_ Kitakami sounds dejected, but the admiral always cheers her subordinates up.

 _"_ _No worries. This is called an exercise for a reason. Besides, if you all can make perfect judgments then I won't be needed here anymore,"_ The admiral laughed, but someone in the command room could be heard saying _don't even joke about that, miss admiral._

 _"_ _Alright, desron six, increase speed to 33 knots; we're rushing carefully!"_

The small figure of the three ships got even smaller with distance, and the three heavy ships left behind continued their own cruise.

* * *

[1] Type 93 torpedoes (Long Lance) is more prone to detonating because of shocks from bombs or a shell hit. Choukai, for example, was heavily damaged because the shock from a five-inch shell that hit her detonated her torpedoes.

[2] DesRon = Destroyer Squadron. A Japanese desron usually consists of up to 16 destroyers led by a light cruiser, but respecting the game's six ship limit, there need to be exceptions. In reality as well, destroyer squadrons are modifiable depending on circumstances, and by early 1943, maintaining them were difficult.


	10. The Second Hit-and-Run

_Author's Note: I know it might be hard to keep up with the locations of the ships with how much they've moved around, so I made this map that outlined their current positions at the beginning of this chapter. I hope this helps:_

1drv. ms/u/s!Ao_F1BUWrN3_nVja2bDkt9JM5y8X

* * *

The time is 18:07.

The sun should be setting, but since it's summer, it'll take another 30 minutes before it completely disappears and the sky can finally resign itself to the lurking darkness.

"There they are, right on schedule," Kitakami whispered. She was sitting on top of her damaged main gun during the cruise, but as the enemy dots appeared on their radar and the three had direct line of sight on the enemy fleet, she jumped down. The girls, however, was focusing more on their radar readings rather than direct line of sight since the enemy ships' silhouette, located west of their position, was covered by the brightness of the sun setting. "Adjust three-three-seven so that we can keep an angle on them."

"Three-three-seven…check…!" the little Yamakaze replied briskly at the end of the formation

"Three-three-seven, check. Beginning role call, starting from the front of their formation." Right in front of her was Hamakaze, who also peered toward her forward-port side directly at the enemy. "Ushio, check. Ashigara, check. Hyuuga, check, Shouhou, check. Mogami, check. All units are accounted for."

"Six-five copies," Kitakami replied back as the leader of the task force, and right after thus she waited for another answer, only to be met with silence for about fifteen seconds.

 _"…_ _Lead, confirm data."_ It was Maya's voice from the other side, calling out to Yamato.

 _"_ _Eh? All units…accounted…? Check?"_ However, the response was that of confusion.

"…"

Fifteen seconds of silence ensues. Normally it's about time for the admiral to chime in, but her the radio is silent.

"I guess we haven't explained this yet," Thus, the Hamakaze was the one trying to explain; "The admiral said that if the fleet have an initial data on the enemy fleet composition, it is to be confirmed if it's present in the enemy formation before engagement occurs. Preferably you should do this before every engagement, but for now, it is only prioritized if you need to be very careful, such as this case where you technically only have 3 ships in each formation, or if you have broken line of vision for at least 15 minutes."

 _It's been about 20 minutes since our last engagement…so,_

"…right now, we fulfilled two of its conditions to do a number check…?"

"Correct. Well done, Yamakaze-chan. _"_

Receiving a praise, Yamakaze was rather confused if she should let out a satisfied laugh or not, so in the end her mouth bent into a smile that looks like it was drawn by an infant.

 _"_ _What's…the reasoning behind this action…if I may ask?"_ said Yamato again.

"The enemy fleet, just like us, can have the freedom of movement, so sometimes during the 15+ minutes time we had our eyes off them they can maneuver into different area of operation, so if we do this, we can know who's missing and figure out where they could possibly be," Kitakami continued.

Just knowing that for example three of the enemy ships are missing from their main formation (one where their flagship is at) could be helpful for situations like the Basking fleet's where the main formation is near-sighted as an elephant, or situations where the flagship (usually battleships or carriers) are separated from their escorts thus very vulnerable to torpedo attacks from destroyers who sneak up to them.

 _"_ _Right now, we don't have to worry,"_ said Maya continuing from Kitakami's explanation, _"as Hamakaze had checked, all of the enemy ships are grouped up in their formation, moving along with each other. This is good for us."_

 _"_ _T…that means there are no enemies that could be sneaking up to us?"_

 _"_ _Yeap. We can take a breather now."_ Atago was relieved but still nervous, meanwhile her sister Maya sounded even more nonchalant as ever.

"Alright, desron six, ready torpedoes." While readying her torpedo tubes on her port side, Kitakami ordered her fellow strike force members to ready up. Normally, if her members include cruisers, she'd also mention which side of torpedo tubes are to be prepared, but since her followers are only destroyers, she largely ignored that.

"Tube 1 to 8, loaded and ready. Send calculation"

"M-me too, ready for torpedo salvo. S…send calculation."

"Alright, torpedo launchers A, B, C, D, and E are loaded, ready for launch. Admiral, calculations are all sent; please advise."

 _"…"_

"…admiral?"

 _"…_ _Ah, sorry. Calculation received, wait one."_ After loading their torpedoes, Kitakami sent her calculation data to the admiral for her to check. _"Calculation check complete. Kitakami, adjust left by 6 degrees, increase spread by 10 degrees. Hamakaze, adjust right by 9. Yamakaze, adjust 20 degrees to the left as well. Honesty, in a month or so I don't think I'll need you to send me a calculation check anymore. You all did great."_

"Adjustments complete, salvo ready." Before long, the adjustments made are complete, and the strike force are only waiting for the admiral's words.

 _"_ _Aaaaand go!"_

Tubes of torpedoes noisily entered the water with violent splashes before propelling themselves forward in the direction of the enemy fleets, and after all of their payloads are expended, the three ships shouted;

"Shot out!"

"S-salvo delivered!"

"Salvo out! ETA; 12 minutes."

Unlike Yamato's salvo, a torpedo salvo is a lot more uneventful. All that's left after the torpedoes were launched are water ripples caused by various gasses escaping from the torpedoes created some sort of trail behind them that the girls can see.

From the calculation, the torpedo spread and the sheer number of torpedoes launched, the trajectories showed by the line of bubbles look like freshly-combed wet hair; truly a nightmare for anyone on a floating vessel to see approaching towards them.

Yet that salvo could spread even further from each other as they all aren't moving parallel to each other yet making a huge fan in formation to cover more area, but consequently, highly maneuverable ships such as destroyers and light cruisers can slip past them by turning in to the torpedoes' line of trajectory

"Yamakaze-chan is amazing," commented Hamakaze, "considering this is the first deployment and the first time handling a torpedo salvo, a 20-degree error is very low."

"T-thank you…"

"I remember the first time Hamakaze did a torpedo calculation she was off by 75 degrees," Kitakami followed before letting out a chuckle along with a cheeky grin.

"C-come off it! Besides, even a torpedo cruiser like you still have errors. You still can't beat Shigure, even. She doesn't need confirmation for her calculation, even being allowed to launch torpedoes under her own jurisdictions."

"W…well…her skills are so out of this world, it kinda sends chills down my spine," Kitakami replied again, visibly shuddering.

 _"_ _It only goes off when the admiral directly influences her,"_ said Maya, joining in the conversation. Judging by her light huffing she made, it seems like she's doing some light maintenance on her gun emplacement again to make sure it's ready for another wave of attacks, _"it's almost like she disappears from time to time, but when the admiral calls for her, she'll be there at the ready even before the admiral finish calling her name."_

"…well, it feels like she's always ready to torpedo everyone who gets between her and miss admiral."

The three ships nodded.

Meanwhile, the three newer ships reacted differently with the information.

The mighty Yamato silently muttered _"…wow."_

The nervous Atago kept her silence, not sure how to react.

Conversely, the little Yamakaze was more focused on the part where Maya said "the admiral calls for her", so she puffed her cute cheeks, thinking that she wants to be a reliable figure that the admiral would call for her to entrust her with missions, maybe getting a pet in the head as a reward afterwards.

* * *

Back at the base,

 _"_ _Acchoo!"_

"Hm? Are you okay, Yuu?" The admiral immediately picked her handkerchief from her coat pocket and rubbed the little submarine girl's nose, even allowing her to blow her nose all the while. "Did you catch a cold? You don't have to force yourself to be here if you're not feeling well." she asked at the end.

"No, I want to stay here, miss _admiral_ …", she said meekly, "It's just that…I feel like my role is being taken over…"

The admiral could only let out a confused _"hm?"_ as she stroked the little Yuu's head.

* * *

"All that's left to do is to follow them and scout until the end of the day," Kitakami said, agreed afterwards by the members of her squad, "all units, continue following them while maintaining distance; we are going to shadow them, but be careful not to spook them, otherwise our carefully-thought calculation will go to waste."

"Roger that; Six-four will follow after you, miss Kitakami."

"I'm ready!"

 _"_ _Maya, how's your aircraft coming along?"_ asked the admiral from the base.

 _"_ _Sorry! I just realized when I took in the aircraft that was out, my catapults are a bit off, I'm not sure I can launch another aircraft!"_ Maya understood that failure of communicating matters more than failure of equipment, thus she panicked more to the fact that she failed to inform that to her teammates punctually rather than her damaged catapults.

 _"_ _Understood. Remember to check your wrist-mounted device to fully understand the extent of damages you receive."_ The admiral doesn't sound upset, though she was rather disappointed of the news.

The girls understood their ships like they understood the back of their hands, but confidence can lead to demise. Being confident in understanding their bodies, they got careless and largely ignored the little details that they need to know, not noticing the value of something until they lost it.

 _"_ _I can substitute with my scout planes, miss admiral. I still have plenty, and the sun is setting anyways, so I could make use of it before it's too late,"_ Yamato offered, but the admiral turned her down.

 _"_ _No, actually it was simply a method to ensure the safety of desron six while maintaining vision, but it seems things are smooth sailing for now."_

 _"…_ _meaning?"_

 _"_ _With a scout plane in the air, they can increase distance from the enemy, thus reducing the effectiveness of enemy's awareness and bombardment just in case they're spotted, but I don't think that's necessary since they're maintaining stealth without issues."_

 _"_ _As you wish."_

Yamato thought that the bond of trust between them is key to further interactions with the navy, so Yamato accepted the admiral's decision, especially after knowing her reputation in her navy members.

"S…Six-two reports a flight of enemy planes taking off of miss Shouhou and miss Mogami!" Suddenly, Yamakaze reported. The other two members of the strike force was busy with reloading their torpedoes, but Yamakaze's unfortunate accident of stumbling while reloading allowed her to catch a glimpse of shadows scrambling around the enemy fleet, about 20 kilometers away from them. "I…I'm not sure of its composition, but there are at least 15 aircrafts and counting!"

"…some are heading our directions, and some others separate to the other directions. I reckon it's the scouts and their escorts." Hamakaze paused her reloading and focused to Yamakaze's report subject.

"Miss Yamato, if possible we would ask for some mighty long-range anti-aircraft support! I would prefer not open anti-aircraft fire to prevent detection!" Kitakami asked. Her voice indicated that she was slightly panicked, and her swift movement of reloading her 25 torpedo tubes jittered.

"I'll stay ready nevertheless," Yamakaze said with confidence, but noticing her mistake in the tone of voice she's using, she frantically apologized; "N-not that I don't trust miss Yamato, but I think judging by the size of the flight, I don't think miss Yamato's third cannon salvo would suffice…"

 _"…_ _Yeah, she got a point,"_ Maya concurred, _"Six-one only had 3 beehive shells she can shoot in that direction, but I don't think you can take them all down with one shot."_

 _"…_ _I guess,"_ Yamato sounded a bit dejected but understanding at the same time.

At this point, nobody knows what to do, so Kitakami, under Yamato's supervision, requested support from the admiral.

"Admiral, what should we do?"

But there was no answer.

"…miss admiral?"

 _"…_ _au…what is it?"_

 _…_ _au?_ The faces of the girls seem to say.

 _"_ _You seem out of it today, Admiral,"_ As the main fleet steamed away, Maya who had nothing to do but follow Yamato asked the question in the comms, _"…actually, not just today. I feel you've been out of it since several months ago."_

 _"_ _Ah, uh…yeah, kind of."_

"Come on now, miss Admiral, it's not time to slack off on the job." It was Hamakaze who said that as a joke to defuse the tense situation, but the response was…unwelcoming.

 _"…_ _Oi, you…!""_

 _"B_ _ut...miss admiral…!"_

 _"_ _It's fine,"_ the admiral seemed to be arguing with someone in the same room as her. The voice was almost too quiet to hear, but clearly someone is upset.

"…Possible large air patrol is coming our way…one that might be too large for miss Yamato to wipe with three beehives she's equipped with. Please advise." In the end, Kitakami reported the situation without brushing on the issue. Not knowing how far behind the admiral might be in the information relay, she conveyed everything from the beginning.

 _"_ _Ah…understood. Yamato, try to thin out the enemy air patrol with your cannon as much as possible. You don't even need to take them down; just by shooting, you can temporarily disrupt the enemy fleet, which would probably make Shouhou rethink what to do with her aircrafts. During that gap, the task force is to cruise away from the aircrafts as fast as possible. I'll leave the directions to you."_

"Six-Five copies," Kitakami acknowledges, "Desron six, maintain course and increase speed to 36 knots!"

"Increase, thirty-six, check!"

"I-i-increase thirty-six…Waa~ah…c-check!" Hamakaze was used to combat so she was fine, but Yamakaze almost stumbled over from the sudden acceleration the body of the ship experienced.

"I'll fire the beehives one by one," Yamato's rear turret adjusted itself to aim toward the target's general direction, but only one of the three barrels increase in elevation. "Shell one, on the way!"

The explosion was weaker than the salvo Yamato shot earlier for obvious reasons; only one cannon was firing while she shot six earlier.

After a brief delay, another explosion burst somewhere in the air space between desron six and the enemy fleet. The beehive shell did its magic; burning metals along with shrapnel scattered through the sky, tearing down three aircrafts while igniting them into a fireball, plunging into the sea.

"Three splash. Good hit, Six-one…" Hamakaze reported, "…those are…seaplanes and fighters. Three of them are still in the air, but they're making tight turns to return…"

"The admiral was correct…the fire made them panic and—"

"No! The aircrafts scrambling in the other direction now went straight toward the direction of miss Yamato!" As they thought they finally had a chance for a breather, Yamakaze yelled another ominous-sounding report, "S…Six-two reports that enemy destroyer Ushio and heavy cruiser Ashigara took off…toward the main fleet's direction!"

Maya commented on the imminent crisis; _"did they plan to engage us head-on!? Don't they know that we're a set of heavy cruisers and a superbattleship armed for bears? They couldn't possibly win an engagement with us!"_

 _"_ _If that's the case then it's all right, we can beat them in their own game, but the issue is…the aircrafts,"_ Yamato commented. _"I think we'll need to focus on our own survival…Sorry Six-five, we won't be able to provide long-range anti-air support"_

"The aircrafts…the remaining aircrafts that went here is also continuing their course…they're heading this way." Hamakaze also apparently couldn't find anything positive but some more bad news to report.

 _…_ _the admiral's still quiet,_ thought the six.

No one is sure why. Maybe it's her trial for the six; to be independent with as less help as possible? All of them inadvertently checked their wrist-mounted devices, and it seems like there are no issues with the wireless communication they have, so the admiral must be intentionally keeping quiet.

"…Six-one, your orders" so now that the chain of command has changed, Yamato is the one with the most authority within the fleet. All decisions are to be consulted with her, and she should be the one with the final words.

 _…_ _it's about 20 minutes until sunset…if we move in flank speed…_

Yamato's fleet members heard a massive sigh from the superbattleship, followed by a light slap and a silent _alright._

 _"_ _The main fleet shall engage defensively and stall time until sunset, while the task force shall move in as soon as possible to disrupt the main enemy fleet's movement. It's a gamble, but I think it can work."_ Yamato sounded hesitant and unsure. If anything, what could she do as the one with least combat experience? She can't even formulate a plan that doesn't involve a gamble in success rate.

Nevertheless, "Six-five copies all," Kitakami replied with a smile. "Desron six, hard to port! Turn to two-two-five at flank speed! Let's try to get within 10 kilometers to their starboard side by the time our torpedoes get there! Also, complete your torpedo reloads, on the double!"

"Two-two-five, check!" Right after inputting the data, Hamakaze continued loading the torpedo tubes on both her thighs.

"Two-two-fiv…pyaaa?!" This time, Yamakaze truly tumbled over for not bracing herself for the sudden turn port-side. If not for her quick reaction to grab onto something, it's completely possible that she could've been thrown out the deck into the sea, "C-c-c-c-c-cheeeeckk!"

 _"_ _Six one, don't worry, my anti-air defenses are mostly repaired. Let them come."_ Seeing the superbattleship looking slightly down, Maya also followed suit and tried to encourage her.

Her sister also doesn't seem like she wants to lose; _"I've repaired most of my damages as well. Let's do our best, miss Yamato."_

 _"_ _Lead, do you think you can reload your third gun quick enough before the enemies get here?"_ asked Maya

 _"_ _I…I can try."_

 _"_ _Then I would recommend shooting them once before they get too close. Once they do, it's going to be hard for you to use your main gun. It's no longer a doubt that they're already in your firing range."_

 _"_ _B…but what about the aircrafts?"_

 _"_ _I'll do something about them. I won't let them pass my curtain of fire,"_ Maya said, full of confidence, _"If push comes to shove, you can load beehives after shooting the two, and besides, Atago's anti-air defense shouldn't be shrugged off too. Ain't that right, nee-chan?"_

 _"_ _O…of course!"_ Atago's reply was a mix of happiness of being relied on and a mix of confusion as of how to reply properly to her sister's playful wink.

The strategy is as follows:

Ashigara and Ushio, a heavy cruiser and a destroyer, is cruising in flank speed toward the Basking main fleet consisting of heavy cruisers Atago and Maya and the battleship Yamato. On paper, it wouldn't even be considered a match judging by how outgunned Ashigara and Ushio is, but the aircrafts should proof to be a challenge to face alongside the two.

However, time is on their side. Due to time constrictions (i.e. the planes need to be back by sunset), the destroyer and the heavy cruiser won't be able to arrive at the main fleet's position by the time the planes get there, so the planes should be engaging the fleet first before the surface vessels could effectively strike (the pursuing Ashigara and Ushio could only use their front cannons and unable to use torpedoes). This simply means that they won't have to multi-task when defending.

On the other side, desron six is to attempt a disturbance to the enemy's main fleet as much as possible to create a breathing room for their allies. If they could disrupt Shouhou so that she couldn't control her aircrafts properly, that'll be great, and it'll be even better if they could get Ashigara and Ushio to return to their formation to defend their allies from the onslaught.

Finally, the three had circled their way toward the enemy fleet's rear-starboard side.

"Torpedoes will impact in 60 seconds!" Kitakami yelled. "We'll be entering their absolute detection zone! All units, at the ready!"

"They've spotted us since earlier though," Hamakaze smirked with a difficult expression. "Those seaplanes have been tailing us just right outside our AA guns' firing range."

"M-Miss Mogami is training her guns toward us!" Yamakaze reported, "We should focus on dodging, I think…?"

"What choice do we have," asked Kitakami skeptically. "Even Hyuuga too is aiming her guns here…"

Mogami, in reality, wasn't able to completely aim and pose an angle advantage over desron six since she had no rear guns to aim at them, but her three forward cannons were close.

"Uh…what's our rules of engagement again…?" Hamakaze held up the rig of her main gun on her hand, aiming them carefully toward the nearest target, Mogami.

"…hold fire to avoid detection, was it?"

"Then it's okay to shoot if we're detected, right?"

"…makes sense."

"HE-shell, on the way!"

Seeing that there is no more reason to keep their fingers off the trigger, Hamakaze opened fire toward the heavy cruiser. "Two hits, no penetration!", Yamakaze reported. Of course, with the destroyers having a small caliber of a main cannon, she couldn't penetrate the heavily-armored cruiser, but from the beginning, that wasn't her aim.

"Yamakaze-chan too, help me! Try to set fire to Mogami's aircraft rails!"

Mogami doesn't have a hangar for the aircrafts; all of her 11 available scout seaplanes are lined up in her aft deck fitted with a railed flight deck that replaced her 4th and 5th main guns. However, at that moment, the deck was empty, indicating she had launched everything away.

Hamakaze's aim to set fire to it and gradually cause damage and disable Mogami from recovering or even launching seaplanes later on.

"HE salvo on the way!" Another set of dry explosions launched more HE shells the size of a fist from Hamakaze's main cannon. Not only her, it seems like Yamakaze had also started to open fire with poor precision.

"Two hits from Hamakaze, one from Yamakaze. Deck is set ablaze!"

"Well done! Here comes another!"

"Hold on, they're turning in towards us! Their front guns now have an angle on us!"

"Shit…the torpedoes are going to miss if they turn so much…"

"No worries! They're there!"

The girls of the Bramble fleet seemed to have widened their eyes in shock. Hyuuga, Shouhou and Mogami who had their eyes glued to the three suddenly turned away toward their port side. Shouhou and Hyuuga seemed to have shouted something and at that moment, their movement slowed while they increased their turn toward the starboard side.

But alas, it was too late.

Five water pillars erupted from their port side; three on Hyuuga's belt, another two on Shouhou's fore, and one on Mogami's prow.

The power of the explosion was massive; it briefly lifted the three's entire hulls, but as the sea water start to enter their bulkheads, the two ships start to list toward their port.

Six hits out of forty-one torpedoes might seem to be a low hit percentage but considering the girls had launched them from almost its maximum effective range and the fact that the two initial targets had darted off and the rest of the targets had turned away from their predicted location, it was still a good score.

"Six confirmed hits," reported Kitakami. Usually it was supposed to be the admiral who sends out the report along with the extent of the damage caused by the torpedoes, but she was still quiet. All they can determine is the amount of hits to the target, but not as much as the extent of the damage. No one was sure if one of the three ships that are hit could be considered too heavily damaged to be out of the battle. "We'll consider all of them still combat capable…let's continue our assault!"

"Roger that!" Hamakaze just happened to finish reloading her front gun as the order came down from Kitakami, so she sent out another salvo, this time toward Hyuuga's deck, attempting to set fire to her wooden deck or simply disabling her lethal secondary guns.

Hyuuga went down to one knee thanks to the torpedo hits, but regardless, she still tried to aim her main guns on her rig toward the three. Same goes for Mogami, who couldn't even stand up straight; she still aimed her main guns toward the three, but her swaying caused the guns on her ship to turn left and right as well.

"Two hits! Reloading next!", said the little Yamakaze after hitting Mogami with her main cannons. The impact seemed minor, but that ruined Mogami's aim even further, throwing the barrels on her turrets to aim up toward the sky.

However,

"…Something's off," Hamakaze thought. She doesn't need to continue for the other two to understand what she meant. After all, it was obvious

They have been well within their detection radius, and the enemy's cannons had been pointing at them for a period too long to be ignored,

But they never fired.

Shouhou aside, the massive battleship Hyuuga and the sufficiently armed Mogami should've returned fire. The Basking Fleet's strike force should easily be outgunned and under-armored compared to them, so they could have sunken the task force swiftly.

Maybe it was because of the torpedo damage? Maybe they were too busy applying damage control to pay attention fully to aiming?

Or was it because…they had another target?

 _"_ _Six-Six! Six-Six, please return immediately!"_

"…what?"

It was at that moment that everything changed.

The damaged Hyuuga and Mogami flicked their main guns around and unleashed a full barrage.


	11. Darkness Looming

_Author's Note: Here's the characters' position on the map at the beginning of this chapter. Again, I hope this helps:_

 _1drv ms/u/s!Ao_F1BUWrN3_nnAhn49H1Llrt4o8_

* * *

"Six-one this is six-five! The enemy fleet had triangulated your position! They're sending barrages after barrages your way!" Kitakami reported with panic, "We're trying to distract them the best we can, but our guns can only do so much, and our torpedoes can't have an angle!"

Yamakaze, Hamakaze and Kitakami were all still trying to send barrages themselves toward the enemy, but they have yet to produce any result. The only thing that could prove to be a threat for the heavily armored ships could only be torpedoes, but as they are, the enemy fleet is too far forward for their torpedo turrets to lead the torpedo trajectories.

"Not if we can pursue the angles!" No one called anything, but Yamakaze turned away and took over the two ships in front of her.

"Six-two! Yamakaze, hold up!"

There was a reason why the ships stayed behind the enemy fleet formation.

Ise's 15 cm secondary guns could be devastating simply because of its quantity in distance, but most but about four of them couldn't be faced too far backwards, while Mogami and Shouhou's twin 12.7 cm guns weren't that much of a threat since they are mainly used for anti-air purposes.

But regardless, Ise didn't even bother to look back at the approaching Yamakaze. Was she really that busy with the main fleet? Or was she too busy with reloading her main cannons to care? At best she seemed like she threw something overboard toward the Yamakaze's direction without looking her way, but she can't point out anything dangerous despite of that.

"Yamakaze! Stop! Turn back now!" Hamakaze tried to catch up to the Shiratsuyu-class along with the torpedo cruiser next to her, but her warning fell to deaf ears.

"It doesn't matter! They're not paying attention to me!"

"You don't understand! Hyuuga is…!"

But Kitakami's words hadn't completely rolled out of her tongue when a disastrous change occurred to the ship at the forefront.

Yamakaze's breathing stopped, not simply from the mental shock, but from a physical one. An explosion erupted on her port belt, and she felt two massive punches delivered directly to her solar plexus and her left calf. The hits expelled all air she had on her lungs along with a mix of spit and gastric juices, as well as knocking her off her feet. The explosion, seemingly not satisfied with just that, violently lift the small-framed destroyer toward its starboard side, also effectively throwing Yamakaze's body overboard.

* * *

 _-In the other side of the sea, two minutes ago-_

"…FUCK YOU, ASHIGARA! COME BACK HERE AND TAKE THAT BACK!"

"S-six-six!? What's wrong—"

Before Yamato could finish her sentence, the anti-air cruiser on her starboard turned away from the formation and toward the now fleeing enemy detachment. She would've liked to pursue as well, but she still had her pants down trying to reload the beehive shell from the third turret, and—

"Miss Yamato! Aircrafts are swooping down!" Atago reported the incoming aircrafts now that the curtain of fire from Maya had disappeared.

"!?"

Yamato hadn't gotten the chance to take in a breath, but unfortunately, she was already hit by three bombs on her aft, right on top of her third turret. Her physical body felt like a burning pain struck her from behind, causing her to stumble. She tried to regain her footings, yet another hit was scored on her aft.

"T…that was a score from several armor-piercing shells! Six-five, what happened?!" The attack was concentrated at the superbattleship so Atago could still shout her reports. One thing that she knew is that the strike did not come from the vessels Maya is currently chasing, so the only answer is that they came from the enemy's main fleet.

 _"_ _Six-one this is six-five! The enemy fleet had triangulated your position! They're sending barrages after barrages your way!"_ Kitakami reported with panic. Countless sounds of minor explosions rattled from beyond the radio, indicating that Kitakami was busy with shooting their enemies. _"We're trying to distract them the best we can, but our guns can only do so much, and our torpedoes can't have an angle!"_

 _"_ _Not if we can pursue the angles!"_

 _"_ _Six-two! Yamakaze, hold up!"_

"Uuuuggghhhh…!" Atago is especially stressed. Everyone in her fleet but her are under direct stress. Maya is preoccupied with the enemy task force; Yamato is bombarded by the enemy vessels as well as the airstrike both of them are unable to protect against; and while the task force of the sixth fleet was way beyond her vision to physically see, they also seem to be under fire as well. "M-miss Maya, I'll try to provide fire support! Danger close! I repeat; danger close!" In the end, she chose to face the trouble closest to them and attempt at engaging the enemies.

Yet her poorly calibrated guns prevents her from effectively hitting her targets. After six consecutive volleys, the erratic movements of the two enemy ships aggregated by her teammate's aggression prevents her to land any but one minor hit. As time goes on and on, she will be running out of her quota of shots to be fired from her damaged ship of hers, and at this point, she's not confident.

 _"_ _ARGH! ASHIGARAA!"_ On the other hand, one would've argued that Maya, the Takao-class cruiser that succeeded the Myoukou-class, would fare better against Ashigara, but the combination of Maya's role as an anti-air cruiser, Ushio's disruptive surface strikes as well as Maya's mysterious anger was simply a recipe of disaster; she was constantly taking damage from the enemies. She steamed off with two pillars of smokes billowing from her smokestacks, but right now, Atago saw five pillars of smoke rising from Maya; two from her coughing engine and another three from the fire on board.

Yet her rage flares up even fiercer than the fire on her deck.

Atago failed to notice why Maya suddenly raged against the enemy cruiser. Whatever that was, it was severe enough to make Maya ignore her post and opened up a massive gap in their fleet's anti-air defenses.

And then another set of three explosions erupted, and static was all that's left of Maya's radio signature.

Finally, the report comes in almost too quickly, from the one who had been almost too quiet and too far away.

 _"_ _Yamakaze and Maya; heavily damaged and out of the fight. Return to base immediately."_ The admiral reported in a voice cold as a frostbite. The cold knife that is her words cut through not only the rest of the surviving ships, but also the ones who received damages too major to continue fighting for reasons previously mentioned. _"For all the surviving members, group up with each other, wherever you see fit. Night has fallen; switch for night operations immediately, I repeat; switch to night battle immediately!"_

Atago had thought that it was her frustration that tunnels her vision, darkening her surroundings, but her two allies weren't the only one deemed "sunk"; the sun was also nowhere within vision, leaving only hints of its presence from the glows in the faraway clouds.

But the sun wasn't supposed to be her main concern; her enemies are.

Therefore, she still tried to squeeze out the words out of her mouth despite the shock;

"W…we are entering night battle!"

After her, Yamato follows; "T-the fleet shall enter night battle!" along with her faraway teammates; _"Entering night battle!" "Approaching night battle!"_

"All units, rendezvous at the marker I provided at the map!" said Yamato with panic. She completely gave up on trying to reload her beehive shells, dropping them carelessly on her deck, and immediately turned toward the area she pointed on the map.

It was an area rather far from the enemy fleet, but not too far in hindsight, which could provide them a chance to take a breath. From the other side of the radio, the admiral could be heard sounding _"hm,"_ without any other words, hinting that she approves the decision.

The three remaining members of the fleet aside from Yamato quickly acknowledges the decision and started turning toward their designated targets, with the two remaining ships from the main fleet practically limping there.

 _"_ _Alright, what the hell happened there?"_ asked Kitakami from the other side, _"What's the damage report?"_

The ships were too overwhelmed by the heat of the battle that they all weren't able to provide damage report immediately, and even forgetting completely, but thanks to Kitakami, everyone got their minds back into the game.

"I…I wasn't sure," Yamato spoke with dejection, "Miss Maya suddenly started sailing away from us, pursuing Ashigara and Ushio…"

 _"_ _Ah…those two…"_ Kitakami grumbled. A slap could be heard from the radio, and Atago only guessed that she had slapped her forehead.

Yamato continued; "I received several bomb hits that wasn't really vital, but the AP shells I received penetrated the third cannon…I'm not confident that I can fix it."

"I'm…mostly fine…they were only targeting miss Yamato," said Atago while trying to form herself in front of Yamato, "So…what happened over there? Why was Yamakaze sunk?"

 _"_ _That's…"_

The strike team was hesitant, so the admiral took over with a question; _"Do you all remember how Hyuuga introduced herself?"_

The two pondered as they tried to recall;

 _(Ise-class Super-Dreadnought Hyuuga. My sister and I were intentionally not upgraded into a hybrid carrier due to the admiral's foolish whims…)_

 _"_ _When she said that line about how I intentionally didn't upgrade her and her sister into a hybrid carrier, that was rather an understatement. I didn't retrofit them_ at all _from the beginning…and it's partially my fault for not telling you."_ She said in a tone where people would think she'd be scratching her head in a mix of apologetic feeling and resignation, _"Long story short, both Hyuuga and her sister Ise are still equipped with submerged torpedo tubes…and that's what took her down."_

It seemed ironic that Yamakaze, a destroyer who should've been a master at torpedo engagements, were taken down by a torpedo from the ship that weren't supposed to even have torpedoes, but incidents like this happens in battle, and they all happen due to the deadly combination of miscommunication and carelessness.

 _"_ _S…so that's…what she threw…overboard…"_ Surprisingly, it was Yamakaze who replied almost immediately afterwards, _"I'm sorry…commander, it was…my fault."_

It seemed that she had exerted her last ounce of strength to bring her little body back to her ship. It sustained major damage, but despite its questionable integrity, it was still floating.

 _"_ _Yamakaze-chan, please rest easy…!"_ Hamakaze replied to her in turn, _"I'm sorry I won't be able to escort you back!"_

 _"_ _Don't worry, I've sent some of Thresher fleet's members your way for escort; leave her to us,"_ said the admiral with a reassuring tone this time.

"Then…what happened with miss Maya?" Yamato asked. Her voice sounds a bit harsh; probably her emotion slightly shook her heart that let her do that, but no one in the fleet made a comment to that, possibly understanding what she felt.

But her question got even the admiral bothered.

 _"_ _Miss Maya has…"_

 _"_ _She…simply has a beef…with Ashigara,"_ explained the admiral, _"We'll all have to talk about this later, but…"_

The fleet was left silent after their admiral's explanation, all of them not sure what to do, especially in the subject of interpersonal issues. Conversely, possibly because she lost consciousness, there had been no radio contact from Maya

 _"_ _Anyways, focus up and rendezvous with each other. We'll talk more back at home."_

Yamato replied only curtly, and the three found each other without long.

"What's the plan for now?"

There was a beauty of a direct conversation; at least that's what the four now thought after reuniting at the designated point. It was a shame for them that the admiral could only still communicate to them through the radio.

The remaining four had finished whatever repairs they can carry out to keep themselves running despite the damage. For Kitakami and Hamakaze who had been out having close contact with the enemy main fleet, they were lightly damaged from harassing shots from the three enemy's secondary gun, most doing little to no damage. Atago was left untouched by the enemy, which the admiral could only assume that they were looking down on the poor heavy cruiser; something that she'll need to reprimand them later. The core of the fleet, however, took the most damage out of the exchange. After fifteen minutes fumbling about, she failed to restore the condition of her third cannon, roughly cutting down a third of her total firepower. Her other functions, however, were mostly unscathed.

"Since we're all just mildly damaged, we're still ready to strike at any time, miss admiral," Kitakami was confident. Sure, Maya and Yamakaze was taken out of the fight, but it doesn't mean that they should give up. If anything, now is the time for them to seize the opportunity of the darkness and

 _"_ _Atago, please deploy your night recon aircrafts now…multiple of them if possible, to spread your search range. First, you'll need to catch them by surprise and spot them first. Then you'll illuminate them with star shells, and after you got vision, you can light them up."_ She said, to which Atago acknowledges promptly.

"Just a quick question," the superbattleship nonchalantly asked as the heavy cruiser next to her stiffly deployed her aircraft, "did anybody know what miss Mogami's equipment are?"

"What do you mean, miss Yamato?" the panic from earlier might have let the girls drop their guards; they had completely thrown away the use of codenames in confusion. The admiral however, mostly understood the situation and allowed them the exchange.

"I mean…it could also be possible that she was also equipped with night recon aircrafts…"

"Ah, please don't be worried about that," replying to her was Hamakaze's gentle voice; "When we tried to disrupt their formations earlier, we got a good look at miss Mogami's aircraft deck, and we didn't really see any night-recon aircrafts on."

"That, and mostly we've tried our best to dismantle her aircraft capabilities with our shells. We're not sure if we had completely disabled them or not, but they shouldn't have it up in the air almost immediately," supplemented Kitakami.

"Then we shouldn't have a problem." Yamato nodded before turning to Atago. It seemed like she was still getting used to controlling the aircraft and actually seeing through it, so she was trying her damnedest, closing her eyes and even ruling out the sounds of her teammate. It took her quite a while, but finally she opened her eyes as she finishes.

"I found the enemy fleet; they're directly to our west, thirty-three kilometers away from our location," Atago reported. It seemed like her eyes are connected with the aircrafts as both of them are lightly glowing.

"Permission to fire, miss Admiral?" Yamato said. She already swung the rest of the functional turrets toward the direction of the enemy fleet that Atago had detected, but as this is her first night battle, she was worried if firing would have any adverse effects on them.

The girls are now completely focusing on transferring information from the combination of detection system (i.e. radars) or communication system between each other and the active spotter planes to understand where the enemies are, but for now, only Yamato had an angle on the enemy fleet.

 _"_ _Get into firing range for now and maintain stealth. Open fire all together, alright?"_

The enemies are sitting ducks. Without proper detection, they won't be able see the attacks coming, but once the remaining four opens fire, there would be a high chance the enemy would spot them back, so utmost care should be taken.

"Kitakami-san should be in charge of the star shell, don't you think?" asked Hamakaze, and the rest of the ships unanimously agreed. Simply speaking, Kitakami's light cruiser gun won't be able to accomplish much judging only by its number and caliber, so continuously providing vision should be the priority.

Right after the agreement, Kitakami promptly reloaded her turrets with star shells, while the rest of the crew prepared to sail once again.

* * *

 _Author's Note: Pardon the delay and the short chapter; I'm still kinda deciding where to go from this. Thank you for your understanding._


	12. Personae non Gratae

The admiral's intuition is sometimes too sharp for anyone's good.

Why?

Possibly because it could mostly be seen as a random thought coming out of nowhere. If she relays it as an order, it would bring in, first and foremost, questions among the rank as of why she would make the order.

For example;

"…Kitakami…" Her voice echoes on the command room across the live feed of the ships she's in charge of. The ships around her, however, was somewhat worried about the tone she said it in; "can you please send a torpedo salvo toward your one-zero-five? Full broadside, if possible…"

 _"…_ _huh?"_ , thus an expected answer comes from the torpedo cruiser she ordered, _"B…but why, miss admiral?"_ her 25 torpedo tubes take quite a long time to reload, so why would her admiral tell her to throw it toward nowhere?

The admiral herself understood this, and she felt bad just by giving this order.

But for her, time is ticking. The tingling feeling that she felt at the back of her neck slowly becomes more intense as every second they pass doubting, so as much as she didn't want to push her lovely subordinate, she still had to.

"I…I have no explanations…but please, just trust me for now. Adjust two degrees to the left from last calculation."

Kitakami herself was still doubtful, but she already had her tubes pointing at the provided direction; _"um…calculation sent…not that there's anything to calculate,"_

The calculation was always needed to be underwent to ensure maximum accuracy of torpedo salvoes, but as the calculation requires the relative cruise direction of both the enemy and the vessel sending the torpedo, which the ship will first do and then checked by the admiral. Right now, however, there are nothing to fire upon. There are variables that weren't present for a proper calculation, so both the torpedo cruiser and the admiral could only do some minor adjustments.

"Adjust spread by 7 degrees and launch every two seconds," she said. Her forehead was sweaty from the nervousness, but she didn't bother and kept folding her arms to supporting her massive breasts.

 _"_ _Torpedo tubes one to five, launched,"_ Kitakami transmitted uneventfully. Every two seconds for four more times, she reported the same thing again until she emptied her starboard-side torpedo launchers.

 _"_ _All 25 torpedoes launched,"_ the cruiser said, somehow with a hint of sarcasm in her tone. Without any delay, the cruiser begun reloading her tubes, but as everybody might have expected, it takes time.

 _"…_ _Since miss Kitakami is reloading her tubes, can miss Hamakaze help with the star-shelling for now?"_ Yamato, on the other hand, thought that Kitakami's reloading would hinder her duty if she's the only one in charge of star-shelling, so she asked Hamakaze to help out, to which the destroyer happily agreed.

Meanwhile on the command room, the few who paid attention to the fight expressed their concerns; "What could possibly be in the area miss Kitakami fired upon, miss admiral?" asked the admiral's wife, but the admiral couldn't be more honest;

"I don't know, honey" she mumbled, "I just have a bad feeling about that area…"

Little does the other ships know that the admiral's worry goes even deeper than just thinking that a part of the Bramble fleet was there, northwest of the Basking fleet's formation. It was far deeper of a worry that she would argue the feeling to be similar to that of a dread.

Now then,

The fleet had been fed with information from Atago's night reconnaissance aircrafts, so everyone could see the precise location of the enemy fleet's formation; although not by direct vision and rather by radar. So far, they haven't changed their course, possibly because they were busy controlling the damage the destroyer squadron had inflicted upon them with multiple torpedoes, or it could be because it's their strategy.

So what could there possibly be, northwest of their position?

"?!"

What could possibly cause that muffled explosion?

 _"_ _T-torpedo hit! Contact on one-one-one!"_ upon seeing her HUD light up, Kitakami panicked. It simply alerted her that at least one of her torpedoes reaching a target.

But if so, what would that mean?

 _"_ _There actually is a target?!"_

"Anyone's fine, quickly send a star shell that way!"

For once the admiral panicked.

The sound of gunpowder exploding within Hamakaze's breech strums the anxiety in her heart; it doesn't give her even a second to calm down as the star shell thrown in the sky lit up and descended slowly with glaring light.

And under the incandescent light was a massive formation of bubbles.

What that was from, the girls could only speculate. Maybe it's from the torpedoes hitting corals? The admiral _did_ explain that there were minor islands and shallow areas, so maybe Kitakami's torpedo hit them and exploded.

But at the same time, everyone understood.

That thought was merely a form of denial.

The bubbling water swells, and from within, a dark matter emerges.

Its design betrays any expectation of what one would call a functional vessel. The long hull was colored unnaturally black and it was covered with a mix of barnacles, corals and rust, as if the vessel had been sunk long ago, consumed by the sea and came back to life as a haunting ghost. Alongside the vessel also appear a ghastly figure like that you would see emerging from the well from the movie The Ring. The difference was that the woman was wearing a gas mask that adds an even more ominous presence.

It was a figure far too familiar for the girls to see, yet it was a figure that aren't at all familiar to see at the current situation.

 _"_ _H-Hamakaze reports sightings of abyssal submarine surfacing on torpedo impact location!"_ The destroyer reports in third-person while trying to hold back her panic.

The admiral, unexpectedly, was doing the same thing; holding back her panic. She took a deep breath and opened a communication channel directed to every single ship out on the seas;

"All units, attention! Provide me with every single detail of whatever is on your radar at once!" she said sternly.

 _"_ _Basking fleet reports confirmed sighting of one abyssal submarine at surface level! Sonar ping suggests another one near its vicinity!"_ It was Hamakaze who replied first, almost overlapping with another report. Incidentally, that person immediately continued after Hamakaze even before the admiral had a chance to reply;

 _"_ _Light Carrier Shouhou reports of unidentified vessels engaging our position from the west! Mogami, is the star shell prep not done yet!?"_ Amidst her report, Shouhou was also shouting at Mogami, who were also noticeably panicking over the sudden turn of events.

 _"_ _F-Firing now!"_

 _"…_ _As expected,"_ muttered Hyuuga, _"Battleship Hyuuga confirms sighting of two Na-class abyssal destroyers, one To-class light cruiser and one Ta-class Elite battleship!"_

Without delay, the admiral compiled the information in her head and proceeds with her next order: "All units, we've got ambush! Our defensive perimeter had been breached by an abyssal fleet! Pay attention to your hydroacoustic detection to avoid any incoming torpedoes! I order you all to consolidate whatever force you can muster! The naval base will send a backup fleet ASAP, so set a course for port, now!"

 _"_ _B-Basking Actual copies,"_

 _"_ _Bramble Actual seconds,"_

After hearing the response from the two fleets on the seas, the admiral's attention turned to those around her in the room.

Almost every one of the active fleets was there; from the Hammerhead fleet down to the Mako fleet, though of course, with limitations such as the Tiger fleet being two members short as they were assigned to assist the Basking fleet, and a certain member of the Thresher fleet, away to pick up the damaged Yamakaze and Maya.

The question is, who should she send as backups?

One would argue that they should be sending fast ships, but they should also consider ships with plenty of firepower given that the enemy fleet also consist of only one, but powerful battleship. At the same time, naturally, carriers were out of the question now that the sun had already set, which brings down the selection to mere few.

She would've liked to take her sweet time choosing, but the enemy is closing on the two fleets fast, as hinted by the panicked chatter on the radio, so the admiral could only make a flash decision;

"I'll be creating a temporary fleet consisting of Fast Battleship Gangut, Light Cruiser Naka, Destroyers Shigure, Veriny, Fubuki and Isokaze. Akashi, prepare their equipment and get them ready to go!" The admiral yelled her orders as if she's Gordon Ramsay listing the customers' order in Hell's Kitchen. The mentioned ships simply responded with a brisk salute as their name was called.

"Understood, it'll take 10 minutes—"

"Make it in 5!" she said again, "And Gangut, I'll be overseeing the battle from your bridge, no buts."

"Wh…!? But _Komandir!_ " the Russian battleship cried. The rest of the crew in the room seemed to be putting on the same expression, but they decided that making multiple noises would be redundant and let Gangut voice everyone's concern;

"I told you, no buts!" However, before Gangut could say anything, the admiral yelled back. As she was hard-headed toward the ship on the other hand, the ship too was insistent in not letting this happen;

"Я отказываюсь! Это будет слишком опасно для вас!" She lapses to Russian, throwing her gaze away while not even bothering to translate what she said to the admiral, hoping that if she didn't understand, it would mean that the capability of communications is compromised, and it would prevent the admiral from insisting to go

However, such a childish tantrum wasn't enough to deter the commander's will.

"Я не спрашивал, блять, I wasn't asking!" the admiral responded in a near-perfect Russian accent, "Доберитесь до доков и будьте готовы к развертыванию за 5 минут…и перестать тратить наше время!" She continued pressing with Russian as she stepped forward close to Gangut, giving immense pressure toward the battleship who is only slightly shorter than the admiral.

It was the first time they've seen the admiral so frustrated and the Russian didn't really help her image. However, everyone feels that it was somewhat understandable; they have found an enemy fleet crawling through a training area usually thought as a safe area within the harbor.

So far, the admiral hadn't noticed anything wrong; security was perfect, and patrols are consistently and diligently upheld in the waters surrounding the naval base and to a marginally huge defensive perimeters around it, so how the abyssal ships could have slipped through their grasps are way beyond her. If anything, it will add a lot more things for her to manage, which frustrates her even further when she thinks about it.

The admiral ended up heaving a huge sigh before making a last stand; "Any more excuses and I'll be observing the battle in the frontline on board of Shigure, is that clear?"

"…да," In the end, Gangut could only agree to the condition with clear dejection and defeat.

"Hold on, if we are to allow this to happen, we need an assurance," Finally, the admiral's wife voiced her request; "We need to know that you will come back alive and unhurt, otherwise we will keep you here by any means necessary."

The admiral hesitated, but every ship in the room and even the admiral herself understood that it was a sound argument, but there's no time to hesitate.

She sighed and reached for her right thigh and took out her trusty sidearm. "I'll stay back on board of Gangut to coordinate the fleets from the distance," With a swift movement, she ejected the magazine, pulled back its bolt to eject the one bullet out of the chamber and spun it around to hold it by the barrel. The scene was a lot similar to when the admiral proposed Houshou; she was holding the gun and offered it to her wife with a stern expression, but there was no hint of a romantic end this time. "I trust Gangut and I trust the rest of the fleet, so I won't be needing this." The admiral was sweating from her frustration, but her smile was trustworthy. "I'll be right back, honey, okay? I promise." As if she felt bad for making her wife worry too much, the admiral continued with a softer, more loving words as well as giving Houshou a gentle brush on her cheek.

"Promise us too," said the other spectators; they were mad because they failed to convince the admiral and not getting as much attention as Houshou, but they all still wanted to trust their commanding officers that they love so much, so that request was all they could squeeze out. "And miss Gangut, please bring our admiral and our allies home safe."

"Of course, comrades. Вам не нужно спрашивать," Gangut replied, picking up her coat and adjusting her cap.

"C нами Бог."

With that remark from the admiral, she, along with the six, departed for the docks.

* * *

– On the other side of the seas –

"I, Shouhou as the flagship of the Bramble fleet will take temporary command of the combined fleet," The light aircraft carrier limped her way onto position as the remaining 9 out of 12 ships to fight back against the sudden invasion.

9 ships against 6; if the math works correctly, they should have clear advantage, but they should also remember that firstly, they only have 8 ships that are combat ready in the situation as aircraft carriers are strictly ineffective in the darkness of the night. Additionally, three ships of the Bramble fleet were moderately damaged from the torpedoes from Basking fleet's torpedo squadron, and Yamato lost her third cannon, so no one could judge them as completely combat ready.

Currently, they formed their fleet into a diamond-shaped formation; Shouhou is spearheading the cruise home, followed by the damaged Mogami and Hyuuga diagonally left and right behind her respectively. Behind them from the left to right are Atago, Yamato and Hamakaze. After them, Kitakami covered their port side after the three while Ushio monitored the whole rear of the fleet next to her. Lastly, serving as the makeshift armor on the rear was Ashigara.

 _"_ _Combined fleet, be advised; help is steaming your way from the direction of home port consisting one battleship and a small torpedo squadron."_ The radio that had been silent suddenly boots up again, bringing in the voice of their beloved commander, _"Provide me with anything that you can report while attempt a defensive formation while maintaining stealth and steam back to home port until at least the range of the rescue fleet's protection or the range of our port's coastal guns. Fight back only if necessary."_

"Already on it, ma'am," Hyuuga responded briskly, "We've just finished making our formations; now we're carrying out any sort of repairs we can do."

 _"_ _What's the status of the enemy fleet?"_

"From my observation, they seem to be reforming themselves as their attempt to take us by surprise had failed," reported Hamakaze, peering far away into the darkness "We've broken vision since the start of their assault but there have been no instances of torpedoes coming our way."

"On the other hand, their surface fleet has been going crazy on us," Ashigara said. She seemed to have received some hits from the enemy's surface fleet, though none of them critical. "We've been taking care of them without issues, but if we're pressured back by just their harassment shots, we're not confident we can take on their full force."

The admiral cursed something barely audible to anyone and told the girls; _"I feel like I don't need to tell you anymore, but eyes up and fight under the assumption that you are facing two whole enemy fleets. Don't let your guard down!"_

The nine voiced their acknowledgements, maintaining their speed as they limped their way home…but sadly, the enemy wasn't just going to let them pass.

Kitakami grunted as the she received a hit. She was the one ship who was at the outer ring of the formation, so it should be obvious that the enemy would target her first. As a matter of fact, the less-damaged vessels were deliberately put on rear/outer guard by the girls to prevent further damages for the already-damaged ships, but then again, there were only one with heavy armors and two lightly-armored ones, so it left a lot to be desired.

"Received one instance of damage from small-caliber main gun," Ashigara reported, "nothing major so far, but I suspect they'll keep sending barrages after barrages."

"Another barrage incoming from their surface ships!" This time, it was the scout Ushio who reported after seeing cannon flashes in the distance, "Miss Ashigara, avoid to port! Miss Atago, starboard!"

The two didn't have any time to hesitate nor respond, but thanks to their quick reactions to Ushio's warning, the shells from the enemies scored no hits and crashed onto the water violently.

"Good call, Ushio," Hyuuga commented, "They'll just keep harassing us at this rate…Miss admiral, are we clear to scout with star-shells?"

 _"_ _Granted! Highlight their positions with star shells and engage if necessary!"_

"Shouhou copies," said Shouhou. She'd prefer to mention herself in third person using a code, but as the makeshift combined fleet is yet to be named, she had to use her name for clearance.

"Ushio, ready for star-shelling!"

"Ashigara, ready!"

"Hamakaze too, ready for star-shelling!"

"Atago…ready!"

"Hyuuga, anytime."

"Kitakami…I'll have a hard time getting an angle with my frontal main guns, but given the right moment, I can contribute!"

"Shouhou copies all," She was initially about to ask the fleet if anyone was available for star-shell tasking, but everyone except those who are unavailable such as Yamato who lost her rear cannon and Mogami who doesn't have any on her aft. "Having everyone on light duty will be too much, I'll assign Ushio, Hamakaze, and Kitakami for it. The three of you, please take care of the shooting orders amongst yourselves."

"Kitakami copies,"

"Hamakaze; understood,"

"Ushio; I will do my best!"

"The rest of the you who are able, load HE shells on your turrets and prepare to engage. If possible, only attack them if you are sure you can disrupt their formation and/or attacks."

"Understood. Loading HE shells," echoed Hyuuga.

Shouhou was a capable shipgirl. Her ability to command the fleet was impeccable, enabling her to be one of the few candidates the admiral could trust as second-in-command if others aren't available. As such, the girls trust her with her orders that could only be described as almost perfect. "Miss Atago, what is the status of your reconnaissance aircrafts?"

"Eh? Ah…" But the new girls still haven't built up their trust yet. Combined with their nervousness of facing an actual battle for the first time, their inexperience slows down the chain of command significantly. "Um…ah…one is…within range of…the enemy fleet and had taken quite some damage…th-the other one is on standby…but my crane is out of commission, so…I was unable to…"

"Understood. How many do you have left?"

"J-just one more…I just deployed two, so…"

"Copy. Mogami, are you available for tasking?"

"I'm here, lead, ready for anything."

"Miss Atago, please land your recon aircraft nearby Mogami. She'll retrieve your damaged aircraft for you and attempt maintenance. In the meantime, use your aircraft that's on standby and the one you haven't launched to provide information for our guns!"

"Y-yes, understood!"

There are significant differences in the use of reconnaissance kits such as floatplanes, radars and hydroacoustic detections and star shells. Equipment that provide detection informs the ships of the enemy fleet's position as a circle in the radar they can see in their wrist-mounted device, and consequently, an instinct that tells them where the enemies are _roughly_ positioned. The more equipment they use for detection (i.e. the more floatplanes deployed), the clearer it would feel, and the circle would shrink up to becoming a pinpointed location, but at best, the ships could only 'feel' a silhouette.

That's where direct vision comes in. In the darkness, that rough feeling of where the enemy is located would not be enough to land a hit, so the ships would deploy a star-shell to see the enemy in full detail. This way, it would be possible for them to aim correctly and even attempt at shooting specific, crucial modules, such as the enemy's gun batteries or even their magazine.

Unfortunately, Atago, and consequently the fleet, had only three of them.

Mogami wasn't equipped with night-recon aircrafts despite her deck that had higher capacity than that of Atago's. It was simply because their goal as a fleet is to finish the entire fight before night falls.

But the darkness had already enveloped the battlespace. The Bramble fleet had already lost all their advantages…and thus they had to collaborate effectively with what's remaining of the Basking fleet to repel the enemy force lurking behind them.

That was why Shouhou suggested Atago to pull back her damaged aircraft and leave it to Mogami for repairs before deploying them again.

"Star shells, at the ready!" The three ships on star-shell duty finally reached an agreement, thus the torpedo cruiser reported.

"Roger that. As the enemy is very much directly behind us, torpedo strikes will not be possible unless we expose ourselves to attacks…so destroyers, as you are the ones with good eyesight, you will be our fire detector. Warn us about who they're targeting and when they are shooting…pretty much just like what Ushio-chan just did."

"Understood! I will begin star-shelling shortly!"

"…Even if it's my time to shine I won't be able to do so this time, huh…" Right after Ushio's reply came dissatisfied chuckle from Kitakami.

""Star shells, on the way!""

But as dissatisfied as she is, there's a battle to be won regardless


	13. Murphy's Law

Twenty long minutes had passed with utter chaos.

The abyssal fleet had been chasing them from behind, ultimately making the battle frustratingly difficult for both parties to land a solid hit, but since the objective of the combined fleet is to escape the battlespace with the least damage possible, it worked on their favor.

Despite of that, the damage they received shouldn't be shrugged off.

Ashigara, for example, who had been covering the combined fleet's rear had been the one taking the worst beating. Not only once had she had to send the fairy repair crew astern after enemy shells burrowed themselves into her rearmost compartment, disabling her rudder and narrowly missed her propellers. Her rudder acted as her protection at these times as they allowed for quick evasive maneuvers, but getting them disabled only made the bulky target even easier to hit. Luckily one of the two destroyers volunteered to pop a smokescreen to obstruct the enemy fleet's vision, though it only bought them little to no time as the wind picks up and sweeps their only mean of concealment.

"Even if the wind didn't pick up we'll still have to run away from the smokescreen's effective radius if we don't want them catching up to us," said Ashigara who painfully tried to soothe the pain on her left leg after hearing Kitakami's complaint of the bad luck they had.

"In the beginning I think it's just pure luck that they managed to pass through our patrols," replied Hamakaze, "Smokescreen is ready to deploy once again!"

"Miss Admiral, until when am I supposed to hold on to the floatplane?" The next unit who voiced her concern was the aviation cruiser Mogami.

 _"Our ETA to you is about 5 minutes to your location, hold on until then!"_

"I doubt we have 5 minutes!" as she finished that sentence, her stern was hit by another smaller-caliber high-explosive shell. Thankfully, it did little damage to her important modules. "My flight rail had been continuously bombarded by the enemy! Wait for far too long and our replacement recon aircraft is going to be history!"

Mogami still held on to Atago's aircraft that she retrieved because Atago's crane broke down. She managed to do a quick repair and rearming on it and currently it's sitting on Mogami's flight rails on her stern, but the admiral had asked her to keep it there for the time being, but as she just stated, the window of opportunity is closing faster than the admiral had requested it.

Glancing back at her flight rail, the fairy manning the aircraft seemed to be scared as well, so Mogami tried her best to show a reassuring smile. Despite the distance, the good little fairy with good eyesight grasped Mogami's intention.

 _"Try keeping them there as long as possible and deploy them as soon as we get there to maximize fuel efficiency for them!"_

"I better get a hefty reward for this laterrr!"

Similarly, the other ships are also dealing with the same problems.

"Miss Yamato, incoming AP shells from enemy battleship's front cannons! Evade to port!"

"Uh…even if you say that…Ugu?!"

Two factors need to be considered: Yamato's lack of experience and her heavy, bulky hulls displacing over 70,000 tons. These two factors prevented Yamato to effectively evade incoming shells. Thankfully, her heavy hulls worked in her favor as the heavy armor prevented any serious hit into her inner compartments.

But that, as well as anything that happens in a battle, is always a subject to change.

This time Yamato might have survived with minor damage, but what about the next salvo?

So the one of the very concerned girls spoke up;

"We need to silence those guns!", Atago said with a panic after she fired her two aft turrets with worrying sounds, but as her concern seemingly fell on deaf ears, she shouted again; "At least the cannons! If we could at least silence the battleship's main cannon, we can continue with ease—"

"We know!" but her words were cut short by Hyuuga and her stern cannons firing; "That's what we're busy trying to do but we're pinned down as we are! None of us can get a clear shot on their components without getting shot back in the magazine!"

The ships had been firing back with whatever they have to little score; they were too busy trying not to get hit while shooting back at the enemy, lit momentarily with star shells, with their rear guns amounting to one or two turrets each ship at best.

If they were facing the enemy at their best capacity (i.e. full ammunition, daytime shelling/airstrike phase and no damages), they might have taken a more calculated risk and charged onto the enemy, aiming for at least a parallel engagement, but for the ships who had multiple holes on their hulls, they needed to focus not to be sunk first before anything else. Even the act that might help accomplishing that objective as suggested by Atago would be outright rejected for being too risky.

The destroyers _could_ quickly strike the enemy, some had thought, but that would mean giving up covering smoke and throwing the destroyers against the battleship guarded by a light cruiser, two destroyers and two submarines. Not only that, their lower-caliber weapons could not possibly penetrate the thick armors equipped on the enemy battleship's main guns that could go up to 457 millimeters in thickness[1], because at best, Hamakaze's and Ushio's 127mm main guns could only penetrate armor up to 210 mm[2], so sending them out would be like throwing them into the fire and hoping for a miracle to happen.

Alternatively, sending a light cruiser would render her outmaneuvered by the enemy's light-armored units and outgunned by the enemy battleship, not to mention their submarine capability would render Kitakami busy with dodging torpedoes, much less shells.

The best course of action, if the fleet still insists in sending someone to suppress the enemy, was to send their heavy cruisers. Not only they can outgun the cruiser and destroyers, they have a solid chance in silencing the battleship guns with their superior calibers, but still, the submarines were a serious issue for them who aren't very maneuverable, and amidst the constant, seemingly endless stream of shells raining their way from the enemy fleet, attempting to get close would be considered suicide.

In the end, Atago could only grit her teeth and continue reloading her two rear guns silently.

"I'm going to evade to my starboard! Stay on course, miss Yamato!" It was Hamakaze who warned Yamato so they don't collide into each other. It was easy as Yamato was knowingly immobile so Hamakaze could assume she wasn't going to move and evaded accordingly.

It was a different case for the two of the ships behind them: those who were a lot more mobile and needed to dodge at the same time.

"Miss Kitakami! Incoming shells! I'm going to need to dodge myself!" Ushio who had an incoming fire detector quickly informed her teammate about the impending doom, but due to the panic, corners were cut, and some important information weren't passed through, such as the direction they were planning to take for the evasion.

"Copy I'm evading to port!" Kitakami said, but apparently,

"Wait, I'm already evading to starboard…!"

Yet they had been too late; the rudders were already shifted, and both ships are heading toward a collision course.

"Kyah!?"

"Kitakami-san, Ushio-chan, are you okay!?" Hamakaze tried asking, yet she received no reply.

Both ships attempted turning away, but all it did was slightly soften their impacts against each other. The light-bodied Ushio was thrown from her own hull and she almost landed on Kitakami's, while the light cruiser in question managed to grab onto something on her deck before she was thrown too far. The impact damaged their hulls as well, creating massive dents on their belt and almost ruined their fore decks, while the feedback of the impact sent a massive concussion to the two concerned ship girl's heads.

But that was a start of a massive chain reaction. Ashigara, who was the one ship behind the two had an eyeful of what transpired after the impact.

First, the impact further messed up the spare torpedoes Kitakami had forgotten to stow away during the torpedo engagement with the Bramble fleet a lot earlier. Some of the torpedoes that were improperly reloaded on her launchers in a fit of panic also fell off of the launcher onto her deck. Some were on her starboard side, but some were also on the port side, almost literally touching Ushio's hull.

And then, the news came from Hamakaze; "Incoming HE shells from the enemy battleship! They're aimed at miss Kitakami and Ushio-chan!"

But the two was still unable to properly react due to their concussion, and as they tried to get back to their feet, the HE shells connected, and the incident that befalls Akagi and Hiryuu during her 5-Minutes of Fate unfolds again[3].

The explosion of the HE shells lit the volatile Long Lance torpedoes, creating even bigger explosions that engulfed the two, even covering up to 50% of the ship's hulls. Ashigara who stood behind them had to cover her face to prevent debris, heat and water vapor from getting into her eye.

There was radio silence after that; nothing came from Kitakami and Ushio. As the explosion dissipates, glaring firestorms were spotted on the majority of the two's decks.

 _"Fuck,"_ the admiral silently muttered in the midst of the white noise transmitted from the two's radio signature, _"Hamakaze, Ashigara, Atago check for their damages in their stead! Report whatever you see out of place and provide cover for the both of them! Prepare for a tow as necessary!"_

The three worked immediately, not even voicing their acknowledgment of their admiral's orders. Hamakaze made a huge turn from her location and closing herself in on the two. As she did, she unlatched a tube resembling a smoke grenade canister, pulled its pin and hoisted it up high. As pure white smoke started violently escaping from the tube, Hamakaze's funnel and some other exhaust pipes started discharging opaque smoke that are slightly heavier than air, dispersing itself over several kilometers in radius. For the moment, the smoke seemed to give them a breathing room as the intensity of the salvoes directed toward the rear ships decreased.

While Hamakaze was busy providing protection, Ashigara and Atago also started cruising closer to the two damaged vessels to assess the damage, though they still kept some distance to prevent further collisions.

"Ashigara reports little damage to the two ships' stern…but all of Kitakami's torpedo tubes are destroyed! Atago, confirm!" Ashigara's position could not allow her to check every inch of the damaged vessel, so she also required Atago to confirm her sightings.

"A…Atago confirms!" the Takao little sister's tone was filled with fear, but she proceeded her report; "M-Massive fire is breaking out from the two, and their forward bow are…they are completely out of shape! Point of explosions are determined to be on Miss Kitakami's torpedo mounts!" the more damage she finds the more scared she becomes to look for some more.

 _"What about Ushio?"_

"…!"

 _"Atago, focus! This is a live combat! What about Ushio's damages?"_ Time is key for the two, and Atago's hesitation and fear could not have helped any of them resolve the situation, so the admiral had to reluctantly force the answer out of the poor cruiser.

"H…Her bridge is half gone…!" thus, with one sentence, she explained the source of her fear…but it didn't end there; "Her forward belt is ripped apart so she's taking in water, and the…the torpedo mounts along with her guns are beyond saving…! I-I don't even believe they're still alive anymore! They're…they're both sprawled unconscious in their decks, I…I! KYAH!" In the middle of her panic, another AP shell penetrated her stern deck while another one ricocheted off her belt. It was a destroyer's shell so it did minor damage, but it further shook up Atago who was already having a major panic attack.

 _"Calm down, Atago, return to your position and defend yourself!"_ said the admiral, fully knowing that saying the word _calm down_ would be like trying to fight fire with a doorknob, but there is no denying that to get anywhere, Atago would need to calm herself down. _"Hamakaze, any good news?"_

"Ma'am; their boilers are still active, and they're unconsciously still sailing forward, but they can't maneuver as long as they're still knocked out cold! Their armaments are also completely destroyed, so they won't be able to fight back!"

 _"That'll be enough."_ The admiral sounded just a slight bit relieved, though her tone was still plenty frustrated. _"Hyuuga, Mogami, move back in formation to cover the two and assist Ashigara in protecting the rear. Yamato, Hamakaze, try to tow the two and guide them so they don't break formation!"_

With slight hesitation, Mogami replied; "Miss admiral, what about the floatplane?! Me moving there will jeopardize the safety of my flight deck! I request permission to let it take off first!"

The reply she received was immediate.

 _"Granted! Launch it as soon as possible and have it shadow the enemy fleet. I'll take direct control of it when I get there! Don't let it get shot down by any means!"_

"Roger that! And don't forget about my reward!" Not waiting for her commander's reply, Mogami picked up the part of her rig that resembles her flight rails, moved the floatplane on standby to a catapult and shoots it off toward the enemy fleet. Again, the model aircraft combusts into blue flame and disappeared, while on her catapult, a real-size scout plane emerged from a massive blue fireball. Surprisingly for a fireball, the blue flames only revealed a dim glow.

Meanwhile, both Yamato and Hamakaze was about to attempt a tug as they suddenly realized that they would need to latch their heaving lines onto the unconscious ships, but as they weren't able to do so, someone had to get to them.

"Miss Yamato, I'll jump on their decks and latch our towing wires, so pass it on to me once I get there!" Thus, Hamakaze volunteered.

"Be careful, Hamakaze, their firestorm is pretty severe!" It was Shouhou who warned her, as even she who was in the far front of the fleet formation could see how blinding the fire was in contrast to the darkness around them.

"I'll attempt to use my firefighting equipment on them, so if possible, please provide me with some cover!" The destroyer's plan was simple; to sail as close as possible to the two ships and use the water pumps and firefighting tools on board of her to contain the fire on the damaged ships' decks.

 _"Denied,"_ but the admiral disagrees; _"They're sailing straight for now but who knows if any of them would veer off course and collide onto you, Hamakaze, and the last thing we need right now is another ship—our very last destroyer in the fleet—to fall unconscious. Focus on towing them to establish a degree of control to their course, I'll assign some girls from our side to do that later!"_

"Ngh…understood!" Hamakaze was slightly vexed because she had her ideas shot down first and foremost, and also because she understood that the admiral was right, and she should have thought of that first.

In the end, Hamakaze sailed close to the two, maintaining a gap about a kilometer away between them and gracefully leapt her way across.

"Nnn…this heat is unbearable…"

First, she landed on the Ushio's deck with a squint, and as she started to feel the heat radiating from the flame around her, she tried covering her face with her arm. As Ushio was under her responsibility, Hamakaze quickly stretched a roll of steel wire on her utility belt. The wire roll splits near its end, and they were connected into a steel hook each, so Hamakaze clasped the hooks on both sides of Ushio's waist. Meanwhile she did that, Hamakaze's ship shot something like a grappling hook from its stern and connected itself to two latching points on the flaming destroyer's prow.

Her next target is Kitakami, so after leaving the unconscious Ushio lying down on an area with a more bearable condition, she went ahead and leapt onto the deck starboard of her. The roll of wire on her utility belt didn't seem to have a problem since although it looked like it's disappears at about 30 centimeters away from it, for some reason it does feel like it's connected to the end, hooking onto Ushio, as if the wire is just completely invisible.

"Miss Yamato! Send it!" when she arrived on the torpedo cruiser's deck, she immediately called out to the battleship.

"P-please wait, I'll need to get used to this…"

On the other side, Yamato fumbled upon her own wire reel.

All of the ships were equipped with the same wire reel so anyone could tow any members of the fleet out of the battle if the need surfaces. It could be attached manually like what Hamakaze just did, or it could be shot to another ship's humanoid body to be caught and attached, but of course, Hamakaze was there because Kitakami was unable to fulfill that duty.

The problem was that Yamato would need to shoot her line because of her distance, and she wasn't used to the system yet.

First she would need to locate the towing wire, which she found relatively easily since most of the things that aren't stored in her rig are accessible through the utility belt, but shooting it was a different case; to shoot the line, it was supposed to be connected to a projectile that was to be loaded into a crossbow-like contraption, also on standby on her belt. After thus, the 'bolt' was to be fired toward her target like a harpoon, where the receiving ships will catch them and latch the hooks onto their belts.

If you think it sounds too complicated for a Kancolle fanfiction, you could imagine how complicated it would be for Yamato who had to actually deal with it in the precarious situation that has been unfolding. It took her a whole minute to get to understand the system, and it took her another 15 seconds to actually fire it toward the Kagerou-class destroyer's humanoid body who was trying to withstand the heat after moving Kitakami to a safer location.

The cautious Hamakaze finally grabbed the towing line and hooked it onto the unconscious Kitakami, and as it was hooked, the towing line from Yamato's ship connected itself to the torpedo cruiser's bow, just like it did from Hamakaze.

"Line is set! Returning to my ship ASAP!"

"…I don't think ASAP would be enough," Yet again, Hamakaze's report was replied by something negative.

The setting of the tow lines felt like a lifetime, and in reality as well, precious time had been spent.

"Hamakaze-san, please return to your post as soon as possible and…continue your flare duty! There star shell in the sky had been snuffed out so we lost direct line of sight!" Shouhou was a bit panicked. Radar detection was a bit unreliable in her eyes, so she trusted more on direct line of sight instead, so now that there was no means to see the enemy, she was slightly shaken.

 _"Mogami, what's the status of Atago's aircraft that you took care of?"_

"It's airborne! Say your orders, ma'am!" Mogami clearly understood that the admiral had an order coming for her, so she didn't beat around the bush and directly requested an order.

 _"Control the aircraft for now; get it where your radar readings of the enemies are, and get it to drop flares to illuminate them!"_ said the admiral. She did say that she would have taken over control of the aircraft, but it would seem like she'll need some more time on her end.

"Got it!"

 _"As long as we can maintain direct line of sight, Gangut can immediately provide danger-close shelling support the moment she enters your range, so keep it up as long as possible!"_

It was without a doubt a good news: Hamakaze would get a support in illumination duty after she lost her two comrades who shared the same responsibility, they will have direct vision on the enemy once again, and a confirmed fire support is almost at hand.

So what could go wrong?

The girls found the answer almost immediately.

...apparently, anything that could go wrong _will go wrong._

"Direct sightings confirmed…! Two…no, three of the enemies are missing!" Hamakaze reported as the figures of the enemy sight came into her eyes as the flare dropped from the scout plane illuminated them.

But the light cruiser and the two destroyers are nowhere to be found within their fleet formation.

 _"All units, focus on your radar and hydroacoustic detection system! Find those three bastards at all costs!"_ The admiral on the other side of the seas figured out the seriousness of the problem.

There had been no reports of the enemy ships sinking, and even if they did through accidents or whatnot, the combined fleet would have noticed whether they wanted to or not, so there should still be a full six ships in the enemy fleet.

But three are missing.

There was no reason for them to retreat; at least that's what the admiral would think if she was on their shoes. They have managed to breach the patrol, arrived at a key location of the enemy base and found two of the main fleets almost crippled and ready for the sinking, so to retreat is to miss out on a great opportunity to severely dampen their enemy's fighting power.

So there's only one reason the three would be gone from the formation.

They're moving in on an attack.

But for who?

The Abyssals are directly behind the combined fleet. If they wanted to charge in for a strike, they could've simply increased their speed, leaving their slower battleship behind with the two submarine screens and strike the combined fleet with torpedoes…but if it's just that, the attentive Hamakaze should still be able to spot them steaming closer.

So where could they possibly be? And what are they planning?

The fleet still had no clue. Their radars and hydroacoustic detections found nothing but the three targets lit up behind them. Destroyers and light cruisers can more easily slip under the radar; combine that with the darkness of the night while the moon is hidden behind thick curtains of cloud, they could be anywhere.

So Atago became desperate.

She wasn't equipped with a specialized searchlight, but indeed she was equipped with multiple lesser ones, so out of desperation, she shone those around a ninety-degree arc to her starboard.

And then she saw something unnatural from the direction she shone her lights on.

Everything that has a physical form, with some strict exceptions, would reflect light.

But there was a silhouette that felt so unnatural; as if those silhouettes absorb some of the lights she shone.

So she put the point of contact in the shared map of the fleet and made the call; "…! Hamakaze-san, please fire a star-shell to illuminate my point on the map!"

Hamakaze, too, had no time to hesitate, so she quickly confirms; "Coordinates confirmed; direction two-seven-five, seven kilometers away. Star shells on the way!"

The shell popped, and the seas are illuminated. Three ships that looked like it should've sank decades ago was spotted sailing. The black mass that surrounds them with a mix of coral, barnacles and creepy underwater creatures absorbed the weak sources of light, but it was powerless under a stronger source, so their figures turned visible.

 _"Shouhou, can you analyze where they're going?!"_ the admiral asked. She had no way of knowing what is where from her location, so she could only try to guess.

"Already on it ma'am! They're sailing due northwest, not toward our directions!"

And guessing was all the admiral could do in that gut-wrenching moment; a moment where she had guessed the answer, but refused to acknowledge it.

"They're charging in for the three ships that are out of the battle! They're planning to finish off Kako, Yamakaze and Maya!"

For the first time in her life, Ayumi hated herself for being correct.

* * *

[1] I'm using the data from a Nevada-class battleship. Its turret face armor measures up to 457mm in thickness, though the armor on the other sides of the turret are thinner (its top armor is the thinnest being only up to 127mm), but the destroyer's main guns still wouldn't be able to penetrate them.

[2] Stats borrowed from World of Warships' Kagerou-class AP shells: armor penetration of about 210mm from about 10 km away. The enemy gun's turrets are covered with _at least_ 220mm of protection on each side (again, except for the top).

[3] Improperly stowed bombs and torpedoes on board the Akagi and the Souryuu as they switched the equipment for their bombers exploded as they were attacked by dive bombers from the carriers _Enterprise_ and _Yorktown_


	14. Interlude II: Self-Destruction

Someone had to stop them.

 _"_ _All units, stay on course! We'll provide backups for the three as soon as possible!"_

…or so she said, but I still don't trust her completely.

Miss Kako, I haven't known her outside of her introduction two days ago, but I have a feeling she's a pretty and cheerful girl, so I can't imagine her being less than a mood-maker of the room…so if I can hope for something, I was hoping to spend my days with her.

Miss Maya…I want to just call her Maya to be honest. I don't have my siblings in my previous naval base, so I was excited in meeting and interacting with her as sisters, but maybe…just maybe, she didn't think of me as a sister yet…and I wish to change that

And lastly Yamakaze…I first see her as a meek individual, so when I see that her report says she requested a transfer to look to develop herself, I was very skeptical but…seeing her determination recently ended up making me feel…envious. I wish I could have that level of confidence, and I hope she could teach me.

There are things that I wanted to do with them; I want to get to know them better, I want to learn a lot from them, and I want to be friends with them.

So…without my knowledge, I've already steered my ship off course.

 _"_ _Atago!? Atago! Get back into formation!"_

"Miss Atago!? Where are you going!?"

I feel like the admiral and my fleet's flagship was shouting something, but I'm not sure. I was more focused in something else.

I lifted my left arm which were sore for some reason and checked the map of the battlespace. In it was the pinpointed location of the three ships steaming for our friends and their predicted course, which was also my destination.

I've got to stop them.

I have sufficient firepower and survivability to at least deter them from reaching their target, and if that could buy them time to get away from the battlespace, that'll be enough.

So all I need to do now is to intercept them in their course…I need to move quickly…and in the meantime, I shouted at the top of my lungs.

"HEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

In my arms and my waist are the gun rigs that I never thought I could equip; an old Mark I Type A turrets. All five of them should have an angle on the three ships, and they're all well within my firing range.

My three forward mounts had shot 8 shells, while my stern mounts shot 10, so I should be able to shoot 31 more shells if I was to follow my CO's orders.

"OVER HERE, YOU IDIOTS!" I shot a full broadside toward the leading light cruiser following those words. The sound that my guns made when it fired were…a lot too dry, as if along with the propellant of the shells exploded, a bone was broken. As a feedback from those abnormalities, my hands felt like they were stung by a stun gun. Additionally, I had to shine every light that I have to attract their attention, so…I'm really tired.

My rigs were damaged, and my skills are minimal; all five shells I launched from my single-mount guns missed by a large margin.

It seemed that I've gained their attention somehow, because as I reloaded my guns, they have started to turn their guns at me. The light cruiser was the most threatening, having similar specifications as the light cruiser HMS _Edinburgh_ [1] _,_ while the destroyers' armament mimics that of _Fletcher_ -class destroyers, so unless they get really close to me, they shouldn't be able to penetrate my armor.[2]

As expected, they started returning fire.

"Urgh…!"

Their shooting was accurate, no thanks to the multiple lights coming from my superstructure, but the shells hit areas that are more protected with armor or penetrated my parts clean, so there were no serious damages.

But they sure hurt…a lot…

My arms grew heavy, but I still had to reload my guns. Forward turrets are all loaded, so all I have to do is load the…ah,

A heavy thud resonates from beneath my feet; I dropped the AP shell that I was about to load.

It was at that moment that I realized how much my hands have been trembling. I'm not even sure if it's because of fear or because of the stinging sensation I have been feeling, but…I'm having a hard time even grabbing the shells I need to load.

"Come on…work, damn you!"

I ignored the shell I dropped and picked a new one from the magazine compartments in my rig. Quickly I tried inserting the shell into the chamber, afraid that the trembling and the sweat of my palm would drop it once more. I did the same for my fifth turret, and I'm done.

Another series of dry explosion deafens my ears, and my hand felt worse than before.

The exchange happened continuously. Every time I shot my shells, I didn't think the pain could feel any worse, but this damaged rig always proved otherwise. The rain of shells the _To-_ class light cruiser also had been beating me into a pulp. Their shells didn't penetrate much parts, but it was a little until I realize that my body is starting to be filled with bruises.

I sent out another salvo.

I didn't even know how much I've fired.

I think I've sent out more than seven salvoes total, but there were no ways to be sure. No one's taking note.

If my thinking was correct, I should be well past my main gun salvo quota my CO had given me.

But the three ships are still making a beeline toward my teammates…I still had to stop them, so fuck that.

Another salvo is on its way.

I've lost sensation of my arms, but they've been moving automatically to reload the guns.

I wish I could use my torpedo launchers, but I don't have an angle to connect them.

Judging by our vectors, we're bound to meet at a certain point. By then, I could probably try to ram them. Yeah, I think I'll do that.

"Ghh!?"

A shell exploded on my starboard belt and another explosion violently followed. In its feedback, I felt like my left waist had been hit in high speed by a burning steel pipe.

As my left leg gave out and brought me down to a kneel, a notification blinks on my wrist-mounted device. It said that my starboard torpedo launchers are completely destroyed. It was by then that I noticed the torpedo mounts on my left waist were also gone, and a pathetic burnt crisp replaced its place. Meanwhile the explosion brought fire on my starboard deck, so my left flank feels like it's being fried.

Just a little more…I should be able to ram them soon. I focused so much on it that I unintentionally stopped loading my guns.

My finger is on the trigger, so I pulled it with the last of my strength.

But at that time, I felt my hands falling apart. I was thrown away from my own hull, and it's not even because I was attacked.

It was because Miss Yuubari and miss Admiral was right.

The rigs couldn't take it anymore and the propellant of the shells I loaded exploded violently on the damaged mounts, ripping them all apart.

As I'm sprawled on the ground, I couldn't change my course anymore. I'm headed for a crash course.

I wonder how it would feel to ram an enemy. Maybe a concussion? Would my head bleed? Or would I straight up snap my neck?

I guess we'll see. If I do…well…

"At least I saved my three new friends."

And I'll be with you soon, little Nenohi.

* * *

"Save it, idiot."

Just then, the sound of three muffled explosions invaded my ears from the direction of the enemies...while I felt a strong push from my starboard side.

This girl…who was she…

Braided black hair...parts of it juts out like a droopy dog ears...Her eyes seemed void of life that it scares me a bit, but...she's also on my side...it seems.

Ah, I remembered...she's Yamakaze's elder sister...a Shiratsuyu-class...

Shigure…

* * *

[1] The _To-_ class had pretty similar armaments with the _Edinburgh_ (6-inch guns and 21-inch torpedo tubes), but I chose _Edinburgh_ specifically since the _To-_ class had "6-inch twin rapid fire guns", and although the _Edinburgh_ had 6-inch guns in triple mounts, she was actually planned to carry four quadruple mountings with each mounts having 2 pairs of guns (like Model 1931 330mm turrets on board _Dunkerque_ -class battleship). This was later cancelled due to poor performance and large dispersal patterns.

[2]Atago's belt armor measures 127 mm. _Fletcher_ -class' main guns measure 5 inches (127 mm), and its penetrative power is approximately also 127 mm…at 3 kilometers melee. Keeping above 10 kilometers, the _Edinburgh_ wannabe should only be able to penetrate about 76 mm of armor.


	15. Childish Mismanagement

The heavy cruiser woke up on a yet another unfamiliar ceiling.

"Miss Yamato, Yamakaze-chan, she's woken up," said Akashi, stating the almost obvious, but for the tired people who are in the room that weren't paying much attention, the subtle change of the blonde opening her eyes almost fall unnoticeable.

"…I…" The heavy cruiser was listless as she lifted her torso up to a sitting position. Meanwhile, her fleet flagship approached her with silent steps.

"You're now in the shipyard…or infirmary, as we usually call it," Akashi responded, sitting in her chair next to the bed Atago is lying down on while holding a clipboard in her arm. Checking said board, she mentioned her diagnosis of Atago's damages as if she was a doctor; "Due to the damage caused by the explosion of your rig, it caused fire outbreak across your deck, which burns up to 65% of your body. The explosion also broke your left arm and partially crippled your right."

Atago, who sat up after being assisted by Yamato gradually shifted her gaze toward both her arms. They were all wrapped in bandages, but there was a stiff cast wrapping her left arm in addition to it.

"Where was…the admiral?" Atago had thought she'd receive a status report from her admiral; some sort of debrief after the training and actual defensive combat they had been through, but the figure of the admiral was nowhere within sight.

"The admiral said to report to her as soon as you can move," Yamato whispered near the cruiser.

"I'm not sure if you can move or not, but I'd recommend reporting tomorrow morning—"

"No, I'll go report now." Yamakaze was cut by Atago, who immediately tried lifting herself up and attempted moving out of the bed, but she was overcome with pain as she tried supporting her body with her broken arm. Seeing her pain, the naval nurse that is Akashi quickly moved to prop her up.

"I'll help you go to her office. Miss Yamato, can you please lift her up from that side?"

The two ships gave Atago a shoulder and brought her up to her feet. As they did, Akashi fastened the cloth Atago is wearing to support her broken arm to prep her up for their walk. Yamakaze, on the other hand, didn't know what to do, so she was fidgeting around nearby until they had to walk out of the infirmary, which she helped open the double door.

* * *

The hallways were empty and silent. It just came into Atago's mind that she didn't know the time. Through the windows of the hallway the four trudged upon, they can see the moonlight only reflected on the sea, so the moon is probably up high in the sky, denoting how late it is. Understandably, all the four could hear was their arrhythmical footsteps and the heavy breathing of the injured Atago.

"What time is it?" asked the cruiser.

"It was about 0145 by the time we left the infirmary," Akashi replied, "we towed you back to base at around 2100, and we concentrated on the fleets' repairs the entire time." She chuckled briefly before stopping at the end of the hallway, in front of a double door.

Without hesitation, the floating factory opened the door, saying "Miss Admiral, I've brought the newcomers here…?"

Her tone sounded confused, because the first thing that entered her field of vision as she opened the door was a human domino. There were three people in the room, who were all huddled up in the sofa meant for guests in the admiral's office. Hamakaze, the secretary ship of the admiral, was clinging/leaning onto the admiral's waist on her left, who was in turn leaning her head on her wife's lap on her left.

The Admiral and her secretary were fast asleep, but Houshou who was in her traditional Japanese sleepwear was still wide awake, humming John Denver's _Concrete Roads_ while petting the admiral's head. As she noticed the four entering the room, she stopped her humming and beckoned the four over to sit on the sofa across hers.

The four quietly sits down, and the mothership slowly turns her attention to the sleeping admiral. With a soft, gentle voice, she whispered lovingly into her husband's ear, saying "Admiral? The three ships you requested for are here."

The admiral was still wearing her formal t-shirt, but her getup was meant to make it so that if she fell asleep, she'll still feel comfortable sleeping; she wasn't wearing her coat, gloves and cap, the top few buttons were unbuttoned, her hair was unbraided, and there were hints that she wasn't wearing her undergarment, so there was a plethora of things that boost her womanly charm.

Naturally, the admiral didn't immediately wake up…or more accurately, she didn't want to immediately wake up. She grumbled and thrashed about slightly, asking for "another five minutes" and some other things along those lines with some weird phrases like "nyan" inserted somewhere in between.

Yet her stubbornness crumbles with some magic words, delivered from the lips from the mothership very close to her ears;

"I'll give you a juicy reward if you be a good girl~"

Within point five seconds, the admiral separates her cheek from the mothership's lap, sat up properly and replaced her droopy expression with a stern one.

Houshou had these two sides of hers, where she could be a meek individual that everyone wants to protect and an aggressive side that could even bring the admiral down to her knees…literally.

"Um…miss admiral?" Akashi said, pointing at her right cheek. And it was then, the admiral realized that she got a line on her cheek from her drool that drips out when she sleeps. Embarrassed, she briskly wiped it with the back of her hands.

Again, the shipgirls (except Hamakaze who was still sleeping soundly like a ceiling fan on cold winter days) turned to look at the admiral like she's an exotic zoo animal thanks to her sudden shout.

"I've brought the three here for reporting." Again, Akashi called, and this time, she was successful in gathering her commander's attention.

"R…right," the admiral rubbed her eyes briefly and buttoned up several buttons of her shirt that almost looks like they're about to pop off anytime soon. She then started fishing for some papers in the mountain of paperworks in the coffee table between the two sofas facing each other and took out three papers; "Atago, Yamakaze and Yamato, I have some announcements to make," she said sternly, "…though it's less of an announcement, but…ah, we'll see."

"B-before that…miss admiral,"

"What is it, Atago?"

"Will you allow me to first apologize?"

Atago was nervous, but she still fulfills her responsibility when needed, and what she needed to do right now is address her actions several hours prior.

"I've disobeyed your orders to retreat and charged straight to an enemy detachment…not only that, I've also exceeded my allowed amount of shots to be fired from my main guns…" Atago said dejectedly, "S-so…I am ready to accept any sorts of punishments."

"Aah, that…" The admiral's face showed a mix of disinterest, worry and troubled. "…to be honest, I don't want to bring this issue up. What's done is done, and you've received a fair share of punishment for your off-quota artillery fire."

"…I have?"

"Akashi?"

"Ah…I'm sorry, I haven't really told her the entire uh…consequence."

The admiral sighed, "…understandable, let me say it for you, then;" she took a deep breath while Akashi handed over the clipboard she had been holding to the admiral. "Those you've already noticed are your broken and incapacitated arm. You have also mildly damaged your spinal cord, seriously bruised your torso and legs, several ripped tendons in your arm and shoulders and you've temporarily lost vision on your right eye, but you're lucky that from the looks of it, it's temporary. Honestly I am surprised that you can still be here…I think you're just running purely on willpower at this point."

Atago's face twisted. Probably now that everything was outlined by the admiral, she starts to realize and felt the pain all over. However, what pains her the most was what the admiral said afterwards;

"Other than that, your rig is completely and utterly irreparable."

It takes no genius to understand what she meant by that.

In truth, effectively, Atago had lost her position in her navy. With the destruction of her rig, her position had been reduced to a mere civilian-grade shipgirl as she is now unable to defend herself in the open seas, much less fight with the other girls to achieve their goal.

For the girl, it was like having her reason to live ripped out of her. Her wish she wanted fulfilled by coming into Ayumi's naval base was not just to escape harassment but to also to become a more productive member of the navy, but her actions had denied her that chance.

"As the result of that, all of our R&D team are attempting a major increase in manpower and attempt to salvage, restore, or replace Atago's rig."

"W-what!?"

"You heard me. You've just came here, so there's no reason for you to leave yet," said the admiral. The girls seemed to be too busy moping to realize that the admiral put the clipboard behind the stack of papers she brought.

"W…why, miss Admiral…?"

"Your rigs can be replaced with enough efforts. We can take samples of Takao's rig and attempt reconstruction with a mix of your and her data. You, on the other hand, are one of a kind, so I'd prefer to keep you with us." She was sleepy, so there were barely any emotions in her face. Her care, however, was conveyed more than enough.

The cruiser was flabbergasted. Although she wasn't ready to be kicked out yet, she can somewhat expect it to happen…but it didn't. The admiral herself did not have any reason to even allow her to stay as it brings up the upkeep of the navy without any benefits, but the admiral still let her stay regardless.

"As for your act of belaying retreat orders and charging straight at the enemy…well, we can take care of that later." The admiral sighed, clearly not wanting to continue on with the subject for now since she already had an agenda in place.

"Papa…please don't be too harsh on Atago-san…" Yamakaze's puppy eyes seemed to be one of the few weakness the Admiral had as it had the power to cause her heart to squeeze. Regardless of what she said, though, there was never any plan to be harsh on the cruiser.

"Don't worry, Yamakaze. I'll deal with everything appropriately." The admiral still look sleepy, but her gentle expression almost made it seem like she would pat Yamakaze in the head if only she was close enough. "Anyways, moving on to the subject at hand. Yamato. Strip."

It's been a while, but a Houshou Smash occurred. It was done so abruptly and powerfully that if this were a movie it had to be shown from 3 different angles and a slow motion to allow the audience to clearly grasp the damage it could do.

"I'M SORRY! I SWEAR I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!" The Admiral held her reddened cheek with a look of remorse and comical regret. "I need to see the skin on her back! A-and I'll also need to get her to use this makeup remover, I swear, honey, please lower your hand!"

"Wah…why would you need me to…do that?"

Houshou was still upset…but there's something up with the battleship that admiral's simple (yet indecent) request made her so unusually…defensive and agitated.

"I…Is it a sort of punishment for not being a proper flagship? If…If so, please…p-please, you can do anything else…anything but that…!" Blood drained out of her face, the tip of her fingers gradually shivered, and her voice audibly shook.

But that reaction from her had answered the question the admiral hasn't asked yet, thus she voiced it out.

"As I thought," she uttered, "the transfer request form you submitted to the navy HQ didn't contain the full truth, did it, Yamato?"

"…"

"Seems like cat got your tongue," this is one of the other times where the admiral hated herself for being correct. As she smacked her lips in frustration, she continued; "I guess the kid that was your admiral back then was more of a brat than I thought he was…"

It was at that moment when the door to the office slams open. Combined with a young voice calling out "YAMATOOOO!", the unexpected visitor successfully gained the attention of everyone in the room. Naturally, the warships present (somehow including Hamakaze who snapped open her eyes) and even the admiral's personal weapon the P08 immediately stepped in between their admiral and the guest that was filled with hostility. _Speak of the devil and yadda yadda_ , the admiral thought.

"I'm surprised," said the admiral, clearly not surprised "Isn't it past your bedtime already, Mr. Penn?"

"You filthy commoner should just shut your mouth!"

Contrary to his aggressive behavior, the size of the boy storming in the room was barely half the height of the admiral if she was to stand up straight. His blond hair seemed like it was kept meticulously, but probably due to his apparent anger, it was slightly disheveled, and his expensive-looking clothing was filled with wrinkles.

"How very rude of you, miss Ashikaga," this time, the typical _ikemen_ character that was unfortunately put in a butler position next to the kid spoke up; "Don't you realize who you're talking to!? He is Isaac Shugart Penn, the _Juliana Penn_ Private Company, influential to the top brass of nine different countries!" His handsomeness might have struck the hearts of a lot of maidens, but for Ayumi who's self-proclaimed 'gay as hell', he was just another person.

"Oh, I know." On the other hand, the admiral was calm as a dried dog shit. She didn't say anything afterwards; just sipping the cold tea her lovely wife prepped her long ago, but to those who knew her, that cheeky grin of hers proved to them that she's likely to be waiting for something.

"Hah, be grateful you pleb, I'm here for one purpose, and if you apologize by groveling on the floor, I might forgive you!" said the asshole, "Yamato! Get your stupid hull back here! You're mine, so you better remember where you belong!"

Thus, all gazes were returned to the battleship. She was already scared enough when the admiral asked her to remove her makeup that no one realized she put on, but now it looks like she just saw a ghost.

"Yamato," contrary to the words of the kid filled with fire and fury, the admiral's words are as cool as a rubbing alcohol. "If you don't want to go, you're free to stay where you are."

"Don't let the young master repeat himself, you lowly ship," said the asshole's asshole butler. His gaze was sharp as a knife and it pierced through Yamato's meek behavior, causing her to almost instinctively follow their orders. She was selfish enough to stop herself, but as every second passes, the fear builds up to an excruciating level.

" **YAMATO!** ", yelled the kid " **do you want any more beatings?!** "

"Isaac Shugart Penn. Sub-fifteen-year-old, eldest son of the current CEO of the _Juliana Penn_ Private Company which are…let's see, "major manufacturer of electronic goods, for commercial and military goods". Damn, I guess just like S*msung then." The admiral was read through a paper that seemed new. "As Yamato's former admiral, you were recently courted and sentenced for abuse of authority to contribute in the lack of progress regarding the naval forces' objectives, and the ships in your navy are reassigned to separate naval bases, and one of them is ours."

"Hah, things like that can be shrugged off by a bit of my pocket money! Pay a little bit for get-outta-jail-free card is no problem for me!"

"Well, considering that it's only a minor offense, the fine and sentence shouldn't be that much, so…weird flex but ok." The admiral scoffed, "What comes next though should be a major offense. I hereby charge you with physical abuse as well as breaking and entering leading to disruption of military activity, and attempted coercion accompanied by verbal abuse toward a high-ranking naval officer and her subordinate."

The kid seemed shaken by Ayumi's sudden aggression. Upset and agitated, he turned to his butler, shouting "Bob! Do something!"

The more mature butler knew how to respond;

"Under what basis, miss Ashikaga?" he squinted his eyes further to assert dominance, "Besides, you barely have any proof of whatever accusation you have put upon the young master."

"Oh I _have_ some proof." Ayumi then picked up the bottle of makeup remover and some soft cotton that was on the table and handed it over to Yamato. "Here. Defend yourself."

What she meant was obviously not to defend herself from attacks using those two items. She was roughly telling her to prove them wrong and show them the evidence of the crime committed against her.

However, Yamato was still scared. What will happen to her once she revealed what's beyond the mask she put up? Her old CO had enormous power that allowed him to coerce her to put up the mask in the first place, so she wouldn't want to imagine what they would do to her once she disobeyed that order. It does not help that her old CO and his asshole boyfriend butler-kun was yelling violence at her not to even touch a cotton.

"Yamato-san," amongst the chaos, Yamakaze walked up to her and held the battleship's trembling hands; "I know I might not sound convincing saying this…I don't know how…but papa will take care of this without a problem. Please, trust her."

"Your trust is needed in this navy, Yamato-san" Houshou followed, "and so is your strength to move forward. Yamakaze had shown her trust and miss Atago had shown her determination…so now, it's your turn."

After hearing those words from her fellow mates, the weight of the bottle seemed to be lifted. _What was I worrying for anyways?_ she thought to herself. _It's not like he can do anything to a naval base that isn't his._

So she lifted the bottle, poured some of the liquid onto the cotton on her other hand and swiftly placed the wet cotton on her left cheek. With one swipe, the makeup melts apart and slowly wiped away by the cotton, revealing a sight shocking the shipgirls in the room.

"…!"

What lies beyond what the girls thought as a pristine, smooth skin were multiple patches of black and blue across her face. The more she stains her face with the makeup remover the more bruises she reveals, and the girls could even find some cuts amongst the bruises.

"Alright, that's enough, Yamato." The battleship immediately stopped the moment her admiral told her and Ayumi immediately retrieved the stained cotton and the makeup remover bottle. "Akashi, get me some cold compress, some disinfectants and band-aids. As much as I want to send her back to the infirmary for a full body checkup, I still need to talk to the three of them."

"Understood."

"You see, Mr. Penn and Mr…Bob? That's the evidence, and even if you want to try acting dumb, my shipgirls are also a witness. You can't cover it up anymore."

"What do you mean, you've no evidence that I was doing it! For all I care that bitch just fell down the fucking stairs and injured her dumbass!" The kid is clearly starting to lose his patience as his face started to turn red from all the yelling.

"Uh, no. Remember this?" it was at that moment when the admiral finally pulled out her left hand out of her skirt pocket along with…a sound recorder. After fiddling it a bit, a sound played of a recording she did several minutes ago; _"YAMATO! do you want any more beatings?!"_

The kid and his butler were at loss of words. He seems to be gritting his teeth really hard that it's audible all the way to where Houshou was sitting. At this point, he couldn't refute a clear evidence of what he said and what he'd done, so probably as a last resort of comeback, he tried flexing his family power again;

"I-It doesn't matter! If I tell this to my father, I can just get him to give the order to scrap them and then it won't matter!" he was so angry that broth start spewing out his mouth, but at this point even Bob should understand that he's started to talk nonsense.

"Maybe you're too young to understand, but that's not how the navy works, kid," Ayumi replied, looking down on the kid literally and figuratively, "besides, listen to yourself. You're almost fifteen and you're still relying on your dad to clean up your mess."

Finally, the immaturity mixed with the anger and frustration drove the kid into his limit, and that led him to the only solution he can do left; violence.

 ** _BLAM_**

But Ayumi was more experienced and trained. The moment the kid charged at her with his hands up in the air ready to punch her in the gut, something whistled past the kid's ear at subsonic speed and hit a wooden object somewhere behind him. The sight of the smoke coming out of the P08's barrel aimed roughly at him seemed unreal to the kid that he fell backwards on his arse.

"Y…You just shot at a minor!" said Bob, panicking as he quickly approached the kid. He was about to stop his master as he charged in, but the admiral was a lot quicker with her draw than any other persons in taking actions.

"That was self-defense, and you know that. Don't worry though, it's just rubber bullets so it shouldn't be lethal." Ayumi looked at the two coldly while slowly stepping toward the two.

"Y-y-you know what you've done?! Once I tell this to my dad, you'll be—"

"Big words for a kid whose name abbreviated reads _Penis_."

"You could've inflicted permanent damage to the young master! Do you realize what you've done!?" It was Bob's turn to be angry at this point, taking over his master's portion as well while the kid was stunned out of his mind.

"And the two of you, no only _could_ have inflicted permanent damage to Yamato, but you probably _had_ done it by doing whatever the fuck you did, d'you ever think of that?" the one standing in front of the kid and his butler was no longer the gentle admiral the girls knew. At that time, her facial expression was nothing less than the embodiment of the mask of _Ja_ [1], heavily overpowering the two men sprawled on the floor. "You dare come over here disturbing my meeting and creating noises that'll wake my girls up. Fuck outta here with that. Don't you **_EVER_** come across me or my children again, _you miserable_ _ **pigs**_." She put emphasis on the word _pig_ literally as if she's orally trying to put the word in bold, italics and underline. The admiral's stride and pressure pushed the butler back on his arse just like the kid, but Ayumi didn't stop her stride until her foot sank on the butler's crotch. "Or else I swear on the Nine Divines[2] my bullet is _not_ going to miss next time."

"…Nh…!" A noise came from the battleship. Whatever that noise meant, no one understood.

"Shigure!"

"Yes ma'am!" Once again, Shigure appeared out of nowhere the moment she was called.

"Escort these clowns out of the naval base." With a mixed expression of disgust, frustration and anger, the admiral ordered them away.

"At once."

Shigure dragged the paralyzed boys out of the room immediately after the admiral lifted her heels off of the butler's crotch. Somehow the admiral felt that the moment she takes her heels off, something felt stiffer than when she first stomped on it. As the door opens for Shigure to dispose…I mean, kick the two out, Akashi walked in with several first-aid ointments on her arms.

* * *

[1] One of the masks in the _Noh_ performance, representing a woman so miffed and vengeful she turns into a snake demon…with horns, apparently.

[2] Quick reminder that the Nine Divines are Akatosh, Arkay, Dibella, Julianos, Kynareth, Mara, Stendarr Zenithar and Talos.


	16. Truth to be Unknown

"Right, back to the matter at hand," Just like Houshou several days ago, the admiral's expression turned from a raging thunderstorm to a sunny tropical breeze in a snap. With a certain degree of seriousness in her expression, she sat back down on the sofa while beckoning her subordinates to sit down as well, so both her wife and her secretary ship flanked the admiral at both sides and glomped her arms. "Amongst the three of you, it seems that only Atago completed her transfer request form completely and truthfully."

Two out of three of the new ships twitched in surprise.

"Atago provided full details regarding her dissatisfaction on her previous naval base, and I tip my hat to you there. It must've been hard detailing such experience to complete strangers just to get out of that jail." While the admiral smiled at Atago, the cruiser smiled back stiffly. "Yamakaze and Yamato, on the other hand, only mentioned miniscule details, excluding those that are important for me and the judicial system to know. I…personally would like to review them right here and right now to confirm the truth with you, but is that okay?"

Yamato lowered her face, but Yamakaze, while nervous, looked determined.

"I…if papa wants to, I'll cooperate!" she clenched her fists in front of her chest and jumps lightly, fluttering her short skirt.

"Thank you. How about you, Yamato?"

Yamato was a bit nervous, but she felt like there's nothing left to lose; "I feel like everyone in this room would have already understand my situation, so…please do…if that's going to make everything easier." Akashi worked quick, so by the time Yamato finished her sentence, most of her bruises are now covered with cold patches and the cuts she had was cleaned and closed with band-aids.

"Thanks. Don't worry I swear on the Nine Divines that I won't make it hard for any of you." Now that she had the permission of the two, she picked up another set of papers. "I'm going to start from Yamakaze;

Your report states that you _expressed concerns regarding your purpose in her previous naval base,_ so in that light, you said that you wanted to move to another naval base where you can be more active in duty. Not that I do not want to believe you in this, but before I move on to the real concern you have, is this concern true?"

"Y…yes, I do have other concerns, but this is also true." Yamakaze nodded.

"Got it," the admiral smiled. With this, she confirmed that the determination she saw the first time she went through Yamakaze's transfer document wasn't a lie to cover up a deeper evil. "Now onto the real problem;

 _Yamakaze wasn't only neglected. She was barred from doing official duties, but she was made a slave for other purposes. She was told to do a lot of bad things which include doing various heavy chores by herself and single-handedly serve her CO in all kinds of services, sexual or otherwise. Some eyewitness stated that one of the things mandatory that she was told to do includes providing 'night services', which is a you-know-what, without her consent."_

 _That would explain the behavior on that night where she infiltrated Ayumi-san's room_ , thought Houshou. It seemed like even for the girls around the admiral, what she read from the paper was new information for them.

"Moving on to Yamato. Like Yamakaze, you voiced concern of the lack of advances in your previous naval base, putting the blame on the commanding officer's young age. Little do we all know that it's also due to his spoiled nature, he saw his ships as toys. It says here that _through some sort of beginner's luck, he managed to construct Yamato out of the large-scale construction, but after that, he immediately ceased all operations and toyed with Yamato. At some point he started to get bored, so he used his authority to abuse the hell out of the poor battleship. Some testimony even says that she's been locked in a room and shackled to the wall._ "

"The document sounds uncannily informal, admiral, where the hell do you get that?" Akashi peered at her admiral with a suspicious eye, but the admiral had already expected this question.

"It's from admiral Yuuji," a familiar name sounded, but obviously the three had no idea who this man is. "He's a friend of mine. He's good at snooping around and getting some information from…places, I guess."

Meanwhile, on his own naval base, admiral Yamamoto Yuuji sneezed just as he was about to kiss his loli wife Inazuma, so he got clapped in the cheek.

Contrary to her look, Inazuma Smash is also a thing, and it would often be called the _thunderclap_.

"I hope you eat shit, Yuuji" cursed the admiral.

"So that's what you've been busy with today?" asked Houshou, and the admiral nodded with an expression that looks like she's begging for a spoiling.

"Busy? I didn't see her being that busy during the day though?" Hamakaze, who was the secretary on the other hand, failed to notice the admiral's business apparent to her wife, and it shouldn't be possible considering she was the secretary.

"You were busy helping out the three as the sub-member for the Basking fleet, so you probably didn't notice," said the admiral, "I tried finishing them all before the training was finished, but then the thing with the security breach happened so my schedule went FUBAR."

"Was that the reason for your delayed response and several absences of it?" asked Yamato, who felt partly impacted as the flagship. The admiral only responded with an apologetic nod.

Silence befalls the room. No one was sure of what to say.

The admiral was sorry. She felt that the training could've went smoother if only she had her mind in the game, but since she was preoccupied with things she could've finished on other times, bad things happened. Not to mention that she also somehow felt guilty that the first training for the three didn't go well no thanks to the security breach that she probably could've prevented. She did salvage the mess that ensued, but all that caused her extreme exhaustion, severe inconvenience to her secretary Hamakaze, and frustration from the three ships involved.

On the other hand, no one else had anything to say, and regardless how much they probably understand what the admiral is thinking, they had no idea what to do and what to say.

…All except one person.

"Papa," the bell-like voice of Yamakaze rang as she pattered closer to the exhausted commanding officer. Holding her admiral's bare hands, she lifted it up close to her face and with a smile as refreshing as mints the same color as her hair, she said, "good work today!"

What she did sure surprised the admiral. Her hands were suspended in front of Yamakaze with her eyes wide open looking at the destroyer. Seconds later she snapped back to reality and chuckled.

"No offense, but I was just shocked since didn't think that you'd do that." She laughed with a troubled expression, but it wasn't like she was ungrateful. Ayumi had an image to keep, but now that she had gone down to a point where she ended up being helped by the person she was supposed to be helping. She was disappointed with herself, but what she was concerned the most was if she'd get addicted to Yamakaze's kind words.

"U-um…I wanted to thank you for um…everything…so t-this is the least I could do." Yamakaze, feeling understandably embarrassed, ended up letting go of the admiral's hand. "You've given me a chance to go forth in combat, and even when I messed up and got myself incapacitated, you went ahead and saved me."

"Well, you gotta thank Atago too for that," the admiral smiled gently, "she literally risked her life to save yours, so since now she's going to have some hard times, you have to be there to help her out, ok?"

"Yes!"

Yamakaze's cheerfulness brought tranquility back to the room that was flooded with heavy air just several minutes ago. Just seeing Yamakaze's face that shows utter bliss as her admiral stroked her head lifts the mood of the ships around her.

"Anyways, it's getting late, so you all should be getting some rest. Especially Atago and Yamato." The admiral stood up this time before stating her final orders for the three new ships. "Atago, your order is to rest and recover yourself as quick as possible. We will keep monitoring your conditions and possibly assign you tasks when you are healed enough to perform certain assignments."

"Y-yes!"

"Yamato, you too are to rest to recover all the injuries you received in the past. Go back to the Basking Fleet's dorm room with Akashi to perform a full body check and get those wounds treated. Further orders will be given after those injuries are healed."

"Understood!"

"I'll make it quick and go to sleep myself." Akashi replied cheerfully, but there are signs that she was very tired for the day.

"Yamakaze…" the admiral hesitated. Compared to the other two, Yamakaze was still in a rather pristine condition. She had fixed the damages she received on the training earlier, and since she received no further damages from the abyssal fleet, she is available for tasking even from that very second. However, it's already deep in the night, and there was no reason to stay awake now that everything had been resolved, so the order wasn't that different. "Go to rest. I will brief you again tomorrow morning at 0900 in this office. Don't be late."

"I won't disappoint you, papa!"

The three stood still in a salute, waiting for their commander to dismiss them. Ayumi looked at the three of them and sighed with a smile.

"Hamakaze, since you're technically still assigned to the Basking fleet, you may rest with them now," she said, followed by a confirmation salute from the said Kagerou-class destroyer. "You all did well today. Have a good rest."

"Good night, papa!" Yamakaze lowered her salute and gave her commander/papa a quick hug before joining the other four near the double door leading outside.

"Also, miss admiral?" said Atago.

"Yeah?"

"""Thank you very much!"""

The three new ships replied in unison, showing a smile unlike their gloominess several days ago.

* * *

"Good work, Ayumi-san." As the door closed, Houshou and the Admiral was the only ones left in the room. With no more people around to be embarrassed about, the mothership silently walked up on her husband and hugged her by the arm to lead her to the bedroom next door to turn themselves in for the night.

However, Houshou's hold was suddenly reversed; it was her who was holding on to her spouse, but all of a sudden, the admiral held her wife in an awkward hug.

The admiral was taller than Houshou, yet the mothership was holding her husband's head near her chest. Noticing that Ayumi's slouching might feel uncomfortable, Houshou sat on the spring bed, bringing her lover with her.

Ayumi's hand crawled around Houshou's small torso and held it close to her, not wanting to let go. Noticing this, Houshou started stroking her husband's hair gently.

"Ayumi-san, there's something else, isn't there?"

"…" the admiral was silent for about five seconds, before she let out a very awkward chuckle; "Ahaha, you know everything, don't you, Houshou-san?"

"I just know what I know," Houshou quoted a certain braided girl that sometimes turns into a cat, "Besides, it's one of my life goals to get to be the one that knows you best so that I can be the best for you."

"Marry me again, please."

"Ask me a hundred times I'll marry you two hundred times over."

The two looked at each other with gaze of passionate love, and they both exchanged a laugh.

The mood lightened, albeit slightly, and that allowed the admiral to calmly go through what she didn't manage to say in front of everybody.

"Do you notice that amongst the three of them I didn't go through one of their detailed report?" she asked after burying her cheek onto her wife's modest bosom.

"I presume it's not because there is no detailed report on miss Atago?" Knowing that it's near bedtime, Houshou helped her husband take of her hairband that held together her signature braids and carefully straightened her hair, combing them with her fingers.

"Yes…" said the admiral, dejected. On her hands were the pile of papers of the three ships. She flipped through the pages for Yamato and Yamakaze earlier, but she hesitated to flip onto the third page; a report from Yuuji about Atago and her previous base.

Atago had been going through such harassment for nearly a year, ever since she was constructed. Thanks to her position, the other shipgirls on her base naturally stayed away from her, afraid if they might be treated like or punished for getting involved with Atago. She lived in near solitude if not for the company of the one and only ship innocent enough to get close to her.

A certain Hatsuharu-class destroyer, Nenohi.

In the chance they meet every Friday night, they'll chat, tell jokes, play around and hang out like friends do. In the bleak world where nobody would want to interact with her unless they want to use her body, the mere presence of Nenohi was the only thing that allowed her to hang on to dear life.

Yet the inequities of her naval base seem endless.

Several months after they first met on a certain Friday, Atago was left waiting for the entire night.

Nenohi didn't come.

Another week went by, and the next Friday too, Nenohi was nowhere to be found.

A month passed by, but Atago still come to the same place every Friday night, hoping that she can see Nenohi one more time. That was the only hope she can cling on to.

But then that hope was shattered.

One day she passed through a group of destroyers who was about to sortie. They all still tried avoiding her, circling around Atago by a huge distance. But maybe thanks to that, she noticed something from one of them.

"Hey…HEY YOU!" she rushed into the group of destroyers and lifted a certain Kamikaze-class by her hakama's collar. "That torpedo launcher…Where's the owner of that torpedo launcher!?"

The Kamikaze-class was fitted with a set of torpedo launchers that wasn't hers. In a place where everyone's equipment is interchangeable, it shouldn't be weird that she's equipped with a launcher that wasn't supposed to be hers by default…but what bugged Atago so gravely was the mark on that torpedo launcher.

A sakura-patterned drawing and a thin, pink ribbon.

A ribbon similar to one tied to Atago's hair.

With a mix of fear, panic and regret, the Kamikaze-class struggled free and told Atago the outdated news.

Nenohi was sunk a month ago.

Their admiral had pushed her fleet forward for too far in a greedy attempt to secure resources, while it's clear that by sending them there, they will enter an area the main fleet will not be able to support, and well outside the range of the land-based air support.

But the commander shrugged it off as a victory regardless.

Nenohi's squadron was meant to be a scout…ones that weren't meant to return. He merely expects the intel to return. Not them.

No support and no escape, their fleet was decimated by enemies from all directions.

Atago immediately snapped.

As much as she wanted to rampage, she couldn't in fear of being courted for insubordination and damages.

So the moment she saw the chance to get out with the transfer program, she seized it and she got transferred to Ayumi's base.

Scarred physically and scared of losing any more, Atago couldn't expect anything in the beginning. Anything was better than being _there_.

That…was the report.

Never before had Ayumi felt so powerless.

She wanted to curse Atago's previous commander for what he's done.

She wanted to curse the HQ for not intervening quicker.

And she wanted to curse herself for not being able to do anything…even now.

The night continues as the admiral clung onto her wife as if seeking salvation.


	17. Post-battle Evaluation

The morning begins late for Yamakaze.

Yamakaze was still slightly drowsy as she bid herself away from her fleetmate's dormitory room and headed for the admiral's office. She did it quietly since the two injured members of her fleet along with their doctor Akashi were still sleeping soundly after their exhausting repair session last night right after they returned.

Upon reaching the now-familiar double doors, Yamakaze knocked on them lightly, and after receiving a muffled voice saying "you may come in", Yamakaze promptly opened the door and entered.

The admiral was sitting on her desk, flanked by her wife and her current secretary Hamakaze, who apparently had left the fleet dormitory before she did. It seemed like the morning started late for them as well. While Houshou looked tidy, only leaving her hair down as a sign that she was slightly unprepared, the admiral and Hamakaze were almost totally unkempt. With bed-hair sticking out of here and there, the admiral and Hamakaze were still looking drowsy, while having red tinge on their cheeks, probably caused when they tried slapping their cheeks to keep away the sleepiness.

"Yamakaze, reporting in!" Yamakaze tried being as energetic as possible, but she couldn't help but to stifle a yawn.

"At ease, Yamakaze," said the admiral, yawning herself as Yamakaze's yawn was contagious. After her, it was Hamakaze's turn, which in turn caused Houshou to yawn herself. "I know we're all not at our best and formalities will only tire us further, so be at ease."

"U-Understood." Ironically, as the admiral said that, it made Yamakaze respond stiffly, though only for a short while.

"Alright, for today, our agenda is to introduce you to the advanced functions of the base, namely the escort fleets and home port security fleets, or in Lehman's term, the patrol fleets," said the admiral calmly, resting her arms on the table. "You may not understand some of these functionalities, so effective immediately, I'd like you to be my secretary."

"…?"

Taken aback by the sudden proposition, the destroyer could only stare at the commander with a vacant stare and a frozen smile.

"…excuse me?"

"Like I said, you're going to be—"

"Miss admiral, I think you're moving on too fast," Hamakaze interjected her commander immediately after noticing her cluelessness of the flabbergasted destroyer in front of her. "I'm sorry, Yamakaze-chan. The admiral should've told you the reason for it first before giving her orders like that."

"Aah, right, sorry about that, Yamakaze," the admiral tipped her officer cap absentmindedly. It was a habit of hers to tip her hat when thanking or apologizing someone, and apparently, it's been drilled into her long enough that she still did it automatically, even when she's half-asleep or even when she's not wearing her cap.

"N-no, it's okay, I'm just…surprised, is all…" Yamakaze said, "but why did the admiral suddenly appoint me as the new secretary?"

"I've discussed it with the girls, and the thing about being a secretary is that you can have…an elevated view of the base and how it works," said the admiral, "so for you to learn as quickly and as effectively as possible, I'd like to appoint you as the secretary temporarily. That is, if you don't mind, of course."

Being next to the admiral didn't just give the girls a chance to have time spent close to their beloved. They could also understand the admiral better by knowing the things she had to do, how she look over things on the base, and thus how they can help the admiral with them; those were the consensus of the ships that had served the admiral as her secretary in the several months period where they attended the secretary rotation program. They eventually told this to the admiral, which then the admiral figured it would be a great learning method for the little Yamakaze.

"O-Of course I don't mind!" Yamakaze suddenly yelled, followed by a barely audible mutter saying "if I can help papa, then anything…!"

"For some reason that you'll see eventually, our base's secretary ship runs on a rotation, and today will be the end of my turn," said Hamakaze, holding onto a notebook held by the admiral's secretary. It was Hamakaze's turn to hold it, but now, she was ready to pass it to the next member, which is in this case, it was Yamakaze, so she pattered her way over to the littler destroyer. "Here you go, Yamakaze-chan, it's yours to hold now."

Yamakaze accepted the book with excitement, so she took it while lightly jumping.

"Now we should make haste and inform the next secretary that there's been a change of plan, before this makes any trouble…" Hamakaze's smile turned wry, and so does the admiral, who muttered "I don't think Hyuuga won't like this very much, but well…"

"I-Is this really okay? I'm not making any trouble, am I?" Yamakaze is a good girl; she voiced her concerns knowing that she had created a discord in the system, even if it's miniscule. That, or she was still scared of the battleship girl Hyuuga who was as scary as a killer teacher in your grade school.

"Don't worry, Hyuuga's very understanding." With a carefree smile, Hamakaze uttered an information that's very alien to the admiral's understanding of the battleship, "Worst case scenario she'll ask something as a compensation, namely a date or something."

With the last sentence leaving Hamakaze's mouth, the admiral finally understood what she meant and thought _actually yeah, that's something she might do._

"What you have in your hand is the secretary notebook, denoting stuff that the previous secretary had done, currently doing, will be doing or have to be doing, but since the reason behind you being appointed secretary is different, you don't really have to see through it and do the tasks mentioned in it," explained the previous secretary.

"I actually would like it done by Hyuuga, but I feel that'd be unfair to just shove the work to her while I go around the base explaining things to Yamakaze." The admiral sighed with an exasperated expression, either because she wasn't up completely, or she felt tired thinking about the issue. "Since we'll go around the base later on, I'll pass on the information directly to her as we visit her dorm room."

"Will she be there by then?" asked Hamakaze.

"Yesterday counts as a live combat so she should." It was the admiral's policy for the fleet sortieing on a live combat to have a full day rest (excluding time in the dock) to replenish the girls' morale, but they don't need to do that if they did an overnight practice battle. The battle last night was meant to be a practice combat, but as they ended up fighting the abyssal fleet, the property of the fight was changed, and the participating fleets were told to stay and rest. Yamakaze seem to be a special case, as her undying enthusiasm creates a perfect opportunity for her to gain experience in the naval base.

However, in the admiral's word, _should_ was the keyword, and the three ladies who was in the naval base for a long time shares the same concern.

"""This is (miss) Hyuuga we're talking about…"""

A straightforward, borderline tsundere girl masked in a kuudere vibe. Selfish yet selfless, quiet yet vocal, that is Hyuuga.

Yet her straightforwardness and ambiguity were the parts people sometimes don't understand, which again, led the people in the room to question what she would actually do despite the clear instructions.

"Anyways, we'll know what she'll do when we get to see her, so let's prepare ourselves before going around the naval base," said the admiral after a sigh of resignation, "Yamakaze' you can use the washroom over there to clean up and get yourself ready if you need it."

"Eh? Then where will you prepare?" Again, Yamakaze asked for permission before she made trouble.

"The same room. It has two sinks, so you can wash your face in one and I can brush my teeth in the other. The toilet is in a separate room, if that's what you're worried about."

"Ah, okay," Yamakaze nodded with an expression that voiced disappointment and relief at the same time.

"What'll be my orders, miss admiral?" This time it's Hamakaze who asked, since she'd been relieved of her duty as the secretary, so the admiral replied in the matter-of-fact tone;

"You have a full day off like the others," she said with a drowsy smile, "Good work, Hamakaze, I'm thankful for your help the past few days."

"Anything for you, my dearest commander~" Just before leaving the room, Hamakaze used the chance she had to give her commander a massive hug and threw her a kiss.

* * *

Obviously the first destination they headed to is the Bramble fleet. Not only because an apology is due to Hyuuga, the one who was supposed to be the next secretary, but it is also to check up on the rest of the fleet members who were involved in the fight yesterday. True, she also needed to check up on the Basking fleet, but she had met the majority of them, leaving only Maya and Kitakami who were also treated in the same space as the rest.

Yet again, the injured were staying in the infirmary, while the less-wounded members are probably resting in their dorm room, so Ayumi was torn to where to go first.

In the end, under the advice of her wife who advised her before Ayumi left her office (Houshou chose to stay and do some cleaning), the admiral and her new adjutant heads for the infirmary.

"Oh? What's everyone doing here?" To their surprise, everyone who was out at the sea yesterday was also already there, even the entire Basking fleet save for Yamakaze.

"Good morning miss Admiral", said everyone. Then, the acting representative Ashigara told her their reason of visit; "We came here to check up on our friends, and apply some ointment for ourselves," she chuckled briefly, gracefully covering her mouth with her hand, "We were lightly injured yesterday, but it seems the aching lasts quite a while,"

"Ah, so just some minor repair, huh?" Ayumi stated the obvious.

That, and plot convenience.

"For fuck's sake." The admiral smacked her forehead.

After a sigh, she turned back her attention to her lovely subordinates and scanned the room.

It seems like the lightly injured ships were chatting with each other before the admiral hogged all the attention by entering the room. The heavily damaged ships like Atago was lying on the bed and awake to deepen her bonds with her flustered sister Maya, who sat next to Yamato on the edge of her bed. Ushio and Kitakami, on the other hand, were still sleeping in the infirmary bed. They were unconscious, but the admiral knew that they weren't in comatose judging by their sleeping postures which can only be described as _a failed starfish_ and _a seahorse doing some sort of somersault_.

Ushio is usually meek, but for some reason, she's really aggressive in her sleeping posture.

"Hey, admiral," Shouhou called, peeking her head from behind the battleship Hyuuga "since we're all here, can we get to hear your evaluation to our combat yesterday?"

The eyes of the girls in the Bramble fleet lit up; for obvious reason, of course. The admiral promised to deliver some sort of rewards toward the winner (though it's unofficial), so knowing who won it was something that the girls, especially of the Bramble fleet, was looking forward to.

On the other hand, major dis-contributor like Maya twitched like she was afraid of something.

"W-well…" Certainly the admiral already had a solid answer on which sides showed clear advantage, but she was hesitant to reveal the answer.

The reason was simply because of the reward behind it; communal bath.

But it wasn't a simple bath; it was a bathtime where the members of the Bramble fleet are allowed to wash their admiral's lovely back.

Yet Ayumi knows it's not going to stop there, given that some two members had already said something about doing something to her juicy boobies and booties.

So she tried distracting them with a fluster; "T-try to guess!" and fortunately, the girls were serious enough to consider guessing, so they started chattering to each other. It took them several minutes of discussion between both members as to exchange information they didn't know previously, mostly surrounding each fleet's flagship Yamato and Shouhou.

After a while, Yamato stood up from Atago's bed and spoke up;

"We…I mean, the Basking fleet concedes defeat!" she said in a rather loud tone, signifying she fully accepts their defeat. Behind her, the Takao-class sisters turned their heads away awkwardly, somehow embarrassed.

"Good, you've admitted your downfall", the admiral smiled proudly, folding her arms which inadvertently prop up her breasts, thus emphasizing them needlessly. "But still, I'd still count it as only a tactical victory for the Bramble fleet."

The admiral's last remark riled up the Brambles.

"Eeh? Why did we not get a total victory?" Kako cried from the corner of the room.

"Let's start with the Basking fleet as the losing fleet in this fight, then we'll move up to your fleet, Kako."

The cruiser was quite dissatisfied, but she nodded to the admiral's answer.

"First of all, I don't need to scold Atago anymore since she's gotten the result of her own carelessness of managing shots. All of you should also note that… _that_ , could be you if you don't maintain your equipment properly," the admiral said, pointing at the crippled cruiser. The admiral felt bad for making a bad example out of Atago that the girls around her shuddered, but yet again, she wasn't making a bad example of the armored cruiser per se; she was mainly complaining about Atago's previous naval base for neglecting the maintenance in the first place. "Yamato did a good job leading, but there are definitely mistakes that can be fixed with enough experience." Receiving her evaluation, the battleship smiled.

"Yamakaze, you have trouble following orders." The little destroyer was shocked to be called next all of a sudden, but she turned to listen intently. "You were taken down by lack of information, and to that, it was my mistake, but technically if Hyuuga hadn't done it, Mogami would have torped your belt instead. Back then it seems like she was saving them for Kitakami, so Hyuuga was the one who had to suppress you." After a long speech, the admiral gently put her hand on her new subordinate's head. "You've done a great job with torpedoing; three out of six of the torpedoes that hit them were yours, but next time, be sure to follow your fleet leader, okay?"

The mint-haired destroyer energetically nodded, excited in finally receiving a fruitful lesson from the tiring exercise she did.

"Hamakaze, you also did well,"

"Pet me, pet me!" Even before hearing her sentence, Hamakaze hopped toward her commander and presented her silver hair for the admiral to pet, in which she did with a wry smile and a phrase of _"I'm not done yet"_.

"The problem I see with you is your reckless behavior, especially in disaster-control," said the admiral after a subtle sigh, "Remember this; you can't save someone from falling off a cliff if you fall off the cliff, so make sure you have a safe ground before you safe others because a dead man can't save anyone, even himself."

"Understood!" the girl threw a salute energetically. It would seem like the admiral was lecturing them, but none of the girls feel like it is; they just took her advice like they're attending a class they love.

Next was "Kitakami…" but she was still unconscious. "Well…there wasn't anything I'd really comment about aside from her last mistake of miscommunicating with Ushio, so I'll just let her rest."

Some members chuckled as they turned their gazes toward the sleeping two who were thrashing around beyond their thin blankets and muttering nonsense in their sleep.

Lastly…the member evaluation everyone was waiting for.

"Maya."

"Ugu…!"

"Don't _ugu_ me, woman. Come here and stand before me."

The admiral's tone turned strict for obvious reason. The lady she called last in the Basking fleet's evaluation had made a huge mistake that could jeopardize at least half of their fleet, so naturally the admiral would be quite mad.

 _SNAP_

"OW!"

The moment Maya stood straight in front of the admiral, the admiral promptly delivered a quick flick on the cruiser's forehead. Somehow the force she delivered was almost equivalent to a pellet shot from a BB gun.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" asked the admiral, looking at the cruiser sternly.

"Don't you normally say this first before flicking—OW!"

"Do. You. Have. _Aaaanything_. To say. For yourself?"

"It was Ashigara! —OWWW!"

"What was that?"

"I'M SORRY!"

The figure of the admiral's hand preparing another flick to the forehead brought Maya down to her knees (figuratively), and it was about time Maya stopped making excuses and just apologize for her mistake.

The admiral sighed, "I know you have a bad relationship with Ashigara, but you shouldn't let it compromise your judgment in the middle of combat," the admiral's expression softened, and it looks like she's just tired of being angry at this point. "Distractions happen in battle, and if you let it cloud your mind, it'll sink you sooner than you can start regretting it."

"I…I know…but…Ashigara was…"

"No buts, Maya," the admiral bends down to her subordinate's height to see her face-to-face, though it might be a bit difficult seeing how Maya was holding her forehead, still stinging from her admiral's punishment, "Besides, what did she say that riled you up so bad anyways?"

"…you…"

"What's that?"

"S-she said I'm too much of a tomboy that you wouldn't want me to be with you! She said that I'm not charming for anyone including you!" This time, Maya was having her hands on her face not only to cover her forehead, but also to cover her embarrassment.

But the admiral only chuckled in response, saying "what nonsense". She took the arms of Maya, who wasn't resisting and opened them to reveal her face. Then, with the behavior of a textbook _senpai_ whom everyone wants to be noticed by,

She gave a peck of kiss to the flustered girl's forehead, right where she flicked just seconds ago.

"You're plenty charming as you are, so pay no mind to anyone who tells you otherwise because that's nonsense." She said that shamelessly, about two centimeters away from the cruiser's face, now red and steaming as a steamed lobster. "I'll be counting on you next time as well, alright?"

"Y…yeshhhhh…!"

The cruiser wobbled away as if melting.

…

…

"Alright, with the Basking fleet's evaluation out of the way, we're moving on to the Bramble fleet's evaluation."

 _TO CASUALLY GO FORWARD AFTER WHAT SHE'S DONE…WHAT A LADY KILLER_ , everyone else thought.

They weren't sure if the absence of Houshou was a blessing or a curse, but they can't help but to think of it at the back of their heads, which caused the mothership in question sneeze.

"Listen, everyone, it's true that you had control on most of the battle, but there were times that you were caught with your pants down," she said sternly, folding her arms again. The girls cannot believe what just happened, but they still had to pay attention to their admiral for now.

"First with Kako; a more vigilant lookout would allow you to at least know where you are and where you could be shot from, so although Yamato's shot was hard to see coming, it's not completely impossible. Hyuuga, Mogami and Shouhou, the moment you've gotten a gist of where a group of torpedo ships are around you, you should already know that a torpedo salvo is coming, so you could have, in a way, maneuver yourself to minimize the damage from the torpedo salvo. You were just moderately damaged, sure, but a sneeze from a jellyfish under you could have further rip your belts apart and you'll be sent home to the port."

The ships in question realized their mistakes and they scratched the back of their heads in embarrassment.

"All of that are minor mistakes that you did in the battle, but did you know what your biggest mistake was?"

In the admiral's sudden question, the members of the Bramble fleet looked at each other in confusion. Finally, Shouhou honestly answered "We don't know."

The admiral sighed in mild disappointment, before explaining in detail; "you were angry at Atago to look down on you because of her damaged equipment, but you were looking down on the opposing fleet the same."

It seems like a news to the girls, even the crippled girl in question. The admiral continued to explain while both upset and slightly disappointed;

"The first strike you clearly attacked Atago, maybe because she was the one who volunteered to disable the torpedo bombs, but after that you largely ignored her. During the strike in the sunset, all of you focused fire on Yamato while keeping Maya distracted. Not one of you were paying attention to Atago, and judging by her performance, if she had showed the courage she had when charging at the Abyssals and bared it against you…I'm confident to say that you'll have no chance of winning."

"On top of that, you two, Hyuuga and Mogami, had no reason to ignore the destroyer squadron taking potshots at you from close range. While you did finally manage to disable Yamakaze, they could've done considerable damage if they're lucky enough to disable your armaments or set you ablaze."

"At this point, looking back to it, if they didn't disengage when the sun sets and chose to push their advances, they could've won."

The admiral's evaluation was…discouraging. It shows that the girls had missed a lot of things, and they clearly have a lot to learn given that these mistakes went past their heads as no one really recognize them.

"…we understand," and so that was what Hyuuga said in response. She usually had a lot of pride, so it's unusual for her swallow it, "we apologize for our mistake; we will certainly improve ourselves to do better next time." But regardless, she still bowed her head, along with the rest of the members of the Bramble fleet and apologized to the admiral for their mistakes.

"Well…as long as you understand…" the admiral felt bad that the girls had to apologize, but she didn't say it as she understood that improvements are very much due. "Well um…that…I mean, you still came out victorious anyways, so…congratulations."

The girls finally raised their head and smiled back at their admiral, with Hyuuga saying "all in a day's work", and Shouhou saying "It's for our navy!"

"So…miss Admiral," Kako said afterwards, "Is it reward time?"

"…"

""""""…""""""

 _*flower_petal_falling .gif*_

The girls of the Bramble fleet (Ushio woke up at some point and joined the fray in no time) exited the bathhouse an hour later with their skins glistening.

Somewhere along the way, the admiral felt that she was forgetting something.


End file.
